Getsuyuu Luna Sedata Syndrome
by Darling Drusilla
Summary: When Tatsuki's family visited Karakura years ago, it was by luck that she met Ichigo. His Reiatsu was the only thing that kept her in remission. Then he was drawn away, saving his friends while her sickness reared its ugly head. Forced to continue the move her family started over a decade ago, Tatsuki must adjust to the sanatorium she will slowly fall apart in, and those inside...
1. Chapter 1

"Mail call!"

Miss Ochi walked into the room waving a letter over her head. Ichigo didn't know why the whole class was so excited over one letter, but they were, all of them buzzing in excitement as they watched their teacher open the envelope. He was more concerned about Tatsuki's absence and the rumor of a new student coming into their class. Every time a new student came in, it meant a whole new slew of fighting and ghosts and overall hell until he'd cleaned up for them. He hoped that Tatsuki was just late; they needed to talk.

"If you have any questions, or missed anything, please wait until the end of class to ask them."

She began to read...

_Thank you all for the look book. I look through it every morning and so far I haven't forgotten anyone. I hope school is going well for all of you. Director Haibara doesn't like to give us too much at once, but Dr. Katagiri, that's my doctor, he's been giving me extra work to do. He likes to keep me busy. _

~!~ CHP 1 ~!~

Waking was slow to the young woman on the bed. The fingers of sleep were soft and calming, and the gentle hum of something was a steady drone in her ears, broken only by soft beeps that were picking up in speed as her brain started to function. The voice of her mother was someplace near and coming closer, along with the voice of a man who'd been a steady ornament in her life for at least a few years. But why was he here? Why was he at her house, talking to her mother and why had her room changed so much? The young woman blinked her sleep away and started trying to think. The man wasn't at her house, she was at his. She was sitting in the clinic, hooked up to machines and placed a bit further off than the rest of the beds in the room. Closer to the windows and the entrance to the Kurosaki house proper.

"Ah, good morning Tsuki-chou."

She looked over to see Isshin walking into the clinic with her mother close behind. He was smiling and looked happy enough, but it was his eyes and his hands that told the truth. He was worried about something; her mother wasn't so talented at hiding her concern.

"What happened?" she asked. "The last thing I remember is going to bed...and then there was a sound."

"Was it the sound of a car horn?" Isshin asked. "You were brought in last night when a motorist knocked you off of the bridge and into the Karasu River."

"No," Tatsuki shook her head. "It wasn't that...I went to bed, I told you, and then, there was a chime, but not, and I woke up here."

Isshin sat down on the chair beside her bed and his smile had disappeared. In it's place was a commanding man who had something to say and she needed to listen. He asked her mother to go ahead and make some tea in the kitchen, enough for all of them, but didn't speak again until her mother had left the room.

"Tatsuki, this is the fifth time you've come in." She couldn't look at him as he spoke. Not now when everything just kept getting worse. "That's in the last few months. Now I know that this has been happening for a while, but it's getting worse."

"I know," she nodded. "I do. Mom was going to call someone to put bars on the windows, but-"

"It's not going to help. Your soul..." Isshin shook his head. He reached for her hand and Tatsuki looked towards the door of the house once more. "I want to call in a friend of mine, he knows a bit more about what this might be."

"Alright," she nodded. "But, please, just don't tell Ichigo. It probably wouldn't help the way he sees rivers. Or water in general. I'd actually like to leave before he knows I'm here if he doesn't know already."

Tatsuki looked over when Isshin's hand on her own loosed a bit and seemed to freeze. He was confused, and obviously doubting her sanity when he revealed that Ichigo wasn't there. That he hadn't been there for a while now. It wasn't a school day though, she was sure of it. As he spoke, the chiming ring she'd heard before began to cho in her ears, a faint inkling on the edge of her mind that was growing stronger.

"No, it's not," Isshin admitted. "But Ichigo hasn't been home for quite some time, he's fighting in Hueco Mundo, remember?"

"Obviously not," Tatsuki nearly shouted. "I don't, he's not off in ghost town, he already saved his stupid not girlfriend. He came home, didn't he?"

"He did," Isshin nodded. "Tsuki-chou, don't you remember coming here after the arrancar attack?"

"I, maybe, I don't...I can't feel him anymore, but he's here," Tatsuki put a hand to her head as the ringing in her ears got worse. Out of tune, the whole world was out of tune right now, with pieces missing and the steady hum she'd always known echoing in the distance. Her mother had come back into the room, drawn by Tatsuki's confusion as she normally was and a soft tune came from her mother moments later. A gentle tune that calmed her nerves and made her spirit relax. Warm arms and a comforting scent surrounded her and the soft voice of her mother to Isshin reminded her what her parents had decided just a few weeks before.

"We're going to be moving soon," Tokito told him. "Back to the family home on Rougetsu. That's the only place she can be treated."

"Treated?" Isshin asked. There was a questioning doubt in his voice, but Tatsuki was remembering now. "You know what this is then?"

"Getsuyuu Syndrome," Tokito nodded. "Rougetsu has the facilities to handle it and my husband is willing to relocate for a time."

"I've heard of Getsuyuu," Isshin nodded. "Have they found a cause yet?"

"No," Tatsuki shook her head against her mother's shoulder. "No cause, no cure, just a place to die."

Isshin wasn't pleased with what was happening in front of him. This wasn't the first time Tatsuki had come into his clinic for sleepwalking, she'd been brought in at least once a month since Ichigo had joined the same dojo. She'd come in more often when he wasn't there, Misaki's death had caused her visits to spike until Ichigo went back, and after he quit the dojo in middle school she'd come in almost once a week. He'd wondered if she was feeding off of his son for a time, but her energy hadn't done anything but mellow out. He'd wondered if his son's reiatsu had caused it but now, as he helped the Arisawa family pack up and watched Tatsuki play with his daughters, he learned that she'd had it for a long time.

"Living in Karakura made things better for us," Akira admitted as he and Isshin slid the couch into the moving truck. Tatsuki's stepfather had never been an overly affectionate man; Isshin was actually a bit surprised that he would make the effort to move down with his family. "We worried for a long time, but when she joined to dojo, things got better. Then puberty hit..."

"So what's the theory on why it happens?" Isshin asked.

"Heartbreak," Akira lifted another box. "The moon get's it's heart broken by the suffering of man or someone upsets them. I have no idea, but Tatsuki's just such a girl, I wouldn't be surprised if she was just having her monthly."

Isshin didn't say anything to that. Tokito was enjoyable enough to be around, especially when it had to do with children or family, but her husband wasn't Isshin's favorite person at all. He dismissed important events and ignored emotions of those close to him, but Tokito's family hadn't been eager to pick her up after Tatsuki had been born. When Akira agreed to marry the single mother it had seemed like a gift from heaven. Thats what he'd gleaned anyhow. Now the Arisawa elders were taking Tokito back into the fold, but only because her daughter was ill. No more stain on the 'illustrious' family lineage.

The final box was hefted into the moving truck and Isshin was loathe to call his girls away from Tatsuki. They were all so happy looking. He certainly hadn't seen both of his daughters smiling so wide in a long while and Tatsuki's spirit was calmer than it had been last night. Not back to normal, but calmer.

"I ordered in," Tokito spoke up from the door to the house. She hadn't shut the door yet and she was looking back across the floor boards with longing. "Stay for lunch, give the girls a bit more time, hm?"

"Tokito-" Akira began.

"Just one more, alright? She's having fun and the renters aren't even here yet."

Isshin would miss her when she left. Tokito was where Ichigo and Tatsuki had both picked up their brash attitude, but she was also where Tatsuki had picked up her softer side. No, that wasn't right. Tokito had kept that feminine side alive while her stepfather tried to turn the girl into a son. Although... there wasn't any reason he and the girls couldn't visit once they were settled in.

~!~

Tatsuki leaned against the window of her mother's car as she was driven to the fabled Rougetsu Hall. Not fabled, but something Tatsuki had always known about, even when she was just a small child and only just starting to show symptoms. They'd had a room for her even then, but then she'd met Ichigo. His spirit had been so strong and his smile so bright that she could feel the discord in her soul mellowing out. As she got older, it started to twang again, but it was always calmed when she saw him, and later whenever Ishida was around. Not as deep in tone, but it was nearly a sedative when she was upset or raging. Even Orihime had made things better for a time. Fluttering and light, it added high notes to the broken melody of Tatsuki's soul. It didn't fill that gap though. None of them did. Little by little the gap in her melody had gotten bigger. Then, one day, her memory got wiped and the tiny hole was gaping. A small flash of light and the imperfect suggestion that hadn't even worked, and the tune had broken. She'd been hoping that maybe when they'd returned, it might fix itself, but not a one had spoken to her. They looked with guilty eyes and held secrets from her; Tatsuki had wondered if they knew until she realized what it really was.

"Tsu-tsu?" Her mother's voice was soft in the driver's seat. "We're here."

"Yeah," she sat upright. "I see it."

If it wasn't for the fact that Tatsuki was about to become a permanent resident of the asylum, she might have thought the building was lovely. Ignoring the odd sounds coming from within, ignoring the fact that a teen was pushing a doll around in a wheel chair, ignoring the way she felt worse with every step closer, Tatsuki couldn't help but wonder at the flowers in front and the trees that would soon blossom. The sound of the ocean mixed with the sound of birds and a fountain in front of the building was bright and sparkling. Then a sound came from inside of the building. A song Tatsuki's mother had sung to her every night and just as it calmed the girl, the sounds of suffering within the building mellowed and quieted down.

"They say I can't come in with you," Tokito spoke softly. "But I can walk to the front door with you."

"That's enough," Tatsuki took her mother's hand into her own. "I know that Akira wants to take off as soon as I'm settled."

"Tsu-tsu..."

"Don't worry. If this thing is...If," Tatsuki shook her head and tried not to smile about the word slip. "I don't blame you mama." Not when there was every chance Tatsuki wouldn't even remember soon enough. Short term was the first to go according to her mom. "I could never blame you. I want you to know that. Now, while I'm still me. I've never blamed you for anything. I love you."

She hadn't meant to make her mother cry, as Tatsuki held the woman, arms wrapped tight, she tried to make sure her heart remembered it. Her mind wasn't dependable anymore. Her brain wasn't working right, but her heart was. It clenched with pain and fluttered with joy, so Tatsuki was going to make sure that her heart remembered.

There was a nurse outside of the car, waiting with an orderly as Tatsuki bid her mother farewell.

"I want loud music at my wake," Tatsuki laughed as she climbed out of the car. She wiped a tear away and made sure she kept smiling. "Music, and laughter, okay?"

"Of course," her mother nodded. "I'll make sure of it."

The car began to drive away, leaving Tatsuki in front of Rougetsu Hall with nurses and doctors waiting behind her. Her bags were being carried by a larger man while one of the nurses had her purse and a clipboard. All of them dressed in white and trying to be as non threatening as possible. Even if they had come at her, she was pretty sure she could only fend them off until they dosed her up. She could see one of the nurses holding something in her pocket even now.

"Miss Arisawa?" The one with her purse and clipboard asked. Tatsuki nodded. "Right this way please."

She followed along, keeping as far from the one with the syringe as she could. Strangely enough, the staff seemed to notice and the woman was given directions to see about something else.

"She sets a few of the patients here off," the nurse leading her explained politely. She slowed down just a bit while the rest of the staff went in towards one of the examination rooms. "I'm Aya Kuze, it's a pleasure to meet you Arisawa-san."

"Tatsuki," she corrected. She was trying to keep her feet moving, but they just weren't cooperating. "Sorry, I'm trying to...I don't even know." When she stopped and leaned against the wall, the nurses didn't stop her. "I'm not having an episode right now, it's just...I left while my friends were gone, you know? And they didn't even know, and we haven't talked in almost three months, so I don't even know if they'll think about it."

"Take your time." Aya set a hand on Tatsuki's shoulder and offered her a kind look. No pity, no smile, but there was support and kindness in her eyes. "One of the upsides of being here is having the freedom to speak your mind." Her hand tightened lightly and she began to guide her towards the room up ahead. "But for now, we have to get you checked in and find out who your roommate is going to be."

"I thought I was already...Mom said I've had a room here." Tatsuki went along with her.

"You do, but the hall is filling up faster than usual lately." The door to the room was opened and Tatsuki startled when she saw everyone rifling through her things. "So, we're going to see how things are set up, alright?"

"Can you stop that, please?" Tatsuki asked the one going through her clothes. He either didn't hear or ignored her. In fact, he dumped her things onto the table and shook the case out. "What the? I'm being serious, stop it!"

"Please, just have a seat Tatsuki-chan," Aya asked her softly.

"Not until they stop," she waved her away. "They're messing everything up!"

The other suitcase was dumped and something fell from inside and cracked on the ground, sending glass across the floor. A picture frame that held something near and dear to her heart lay shattered on the ground and Tatsuki felt herself begin to fall into a fit. They were ruining everything, just flinging it around the room, getting dirty hands all over her things. Touching her underclothes and now trying to get her to stop moving and just let them ruin her life. Demanding to know things, to know who was resting in the frame and wanting to know how she bled.

A sharp shout echoed through the room and it all stopped. The song from before began to ring out and Tatsuki jerked free of the person holding her down.

"Hideki!" the man by the door shouted when he tried to make a grab for her. "Please, leave us. You as well Nurse Kuze."

Tatsuki stayed on the examination table as the three of them exited. The doctor remained calm and quiet as he shut the door behind them. He looked about the room, and when he saw the frame on the ground, he bent slowly and caught her eyes before picking it up. Slow steps towards her and very calm as she took it from him a bit quicker than was polite. He didn't react though, instead picked up the discarded clipboard and took a seat across from her.

"I must apologize Miss Arisawa," he bowed to her. She bowed in return and waited for him to continue. "Hideki and Aya are new to the facility and you're their first new patient. They're not quite used to having patients who are sensitive about their privacy."

"They could have just asked," Tatsuki bit out. She touched the glass of the picture frame and wondered if she should pick the broken bits out or leave them there. "Why were they doing it?"

"Every so often, we get a patient with an attachment to danger. Sometimes they try to sneak knives back to their rooms or even sedatives." The doctor looked down at his clipboard and took a file from the counter. "Now, would you rather set your things to rights, or take care of the boring stuff?"

"I can do both," Tatsuki told him. Half a question, but the doctor merely nodded and made sure he was out of the way while she worked.

"I'm Dr. Katagiri, I'll be the one to come and see if you have any trouble with the nurses or your treatment." He looked back and forth between the sheets of paper, writing things down while she started putting her underthings back into the suitcase. She hadn't packed much with her at all, the hospital had a dresscode she needed to adapt to, but some things she really liked. "I had your files sent over from Karakura. Doctors Ishida and Kurosaki are friends of mine, so getting them rushed wasn't too much of a problem."

"You know old goat-face?" she asked. She paused for a minute before throwing something into the trashcan. Katagiri was watching her do it and making a note of what she'd tossed.

"We three went to med school together. A bit mad, living in the same place as those two." Katagiri laughed and kept on with his notes. "Now, I do have some questions for you. A little bit personal, yes, but it's very important in case anything out of the ordinary happens."

Tatsuki nodded and continued what she was doing while he asked her about her life. Was she taking any medications Kurosaki or Ishida didn't know about? How long had she been taking them? Then he asked why she hadn't told them, or even asked them for the prescription.

"Isshin's barely able to accept that Ichigo is growing up, I can't imagine trying to ask him for birth-control." Tatsuki laughed when she imagined the shocked face of the man she thought of as a true step father. "If I tried, he'd probably lock me in a room and set up wards against men."

"He is very protective, it's true," Katagiri nodded. "And Ishida?"

"His son is friends with mine. He's got this whole, wait until marriage thing and I'd be uncomfortable if he found out about it." Tatsuki ran a hand through her hair. It was getting long. "He's a bit of a gossip...and pretty judgmental."

The questions kept on for just a little bit longer and when Tatsuki had finally repacked, the doctor led her up to her new room. Her case was special, having had it at such a young age and kept it under control for so long. But she was also having more extreme reactions to triggers. Katagiri led her out of the room and over to an elevator, carrying her suitcases while she followed sedately beside him. Past the second floor, where the children played and lived, past the third floor, where the adults sat and painted, all the way up to the fourth floor. A newly added part of the facility and the only part to have a free room. It meant she would have only one neighbor, a woman with a case nearly as complex as her own.

"You'll meet her later," Katagiri explained.

He unlocked the door to her room and ushered her inside. There were two sections to it. One half of the room was bathed in sunlight, great windows letting her see everything to the south. The rest of the room was shadowed, holding a simple bed, a desk, and a chair. It was cold in here, impersonal, but waiting for her. Waiting for pictures on the walls and flowers by the windows.

"It needs color," Tatsuki set her purse on the bed. "Lots of color."

"Would you like to paint the walls?" he asked.

"No. Mom has some of my stuff. Blankets, curtains, stuff from my old room." She turned to look at him. "If you could let her know."

"Of course, anything else?"

Tatsuki paused and looked to the window again. Free to speak her mind here. Even if it didn't make sense, she was free to say whatever she wished.

"Flowers." saying it lifted something off of her heart and Tatsuki kept on. "I know, everyone thinks I'm just this tomboy, but...I really like flowers. In pots, not cut. They fade away too fast when they're cut. If they're in a pot, they'll always come back."

Katagiri smiled and nodded. He'd find some for her and have them sent up. There was a florist in town that supplied some of their other patients. If she'd like, he could set up a meeting later one, and Tatsuki could pick out some of her own. Then he left her there. Just Tatsuki, alone in a room waiting to make note of her memories. First decoration was the picture frame she'd held through out the questions. Cracked and bent, just a little bit broken. Part of her wondered if it could ever be fixed. She shook her head and started unpacking, tossing a few more things out and committing more things to memory. Clothes into the dresser, jewelry box on the desk, and a shawl on the bed. More color.

Tatsuki let out a laugh when she came ot the bottom of the suitcase that hadn't been upended. Her furisode was laying in the bottom. Folded perfectly and waiting for Tatsuki to hang it up. Of course, she had no place to hang it just now. She was supposed to wear it at the coming of age festival Karakura held every year. Maybe Rougetsu had one she could sneak off to. Or maybe, they had one of their own right here in the hall.

Tatsuki shook her head and kept unpacking. It wasn't that important. A nurse came in after a few minutes and asked if she needed anything. Much more polite than the first one. Tsubaki Tono was asking if she needed anything else, and upon spying the kimono, wondered if she'd like someone to hang a dowel up for her.

"That would be nice," Tatsuki nodded. "Am I needed?"

"I came to tell you that lunch was coming up. If you'd like, you can stay up here, or come and meet some of the other residents." Tsubaki was polite, but she was honest as well. The look in her eyes and body wasn't practiced. "If you'd like to see the gardens, I can show you those."

"Are you my nanny?" Tatsuki sat on the bed. "Making sure I'm not touching hot things or running with scissors?" It made the nurse laugh and admit that for today she was in fact her nanny.

The rest of the day passed quickly for Tatsuki. She was shown around the hospital and introduced to the few patients they ran into. They didn't go into the cafeteria though. Tatsuki couldn't seem to make herself eat after the journey south. Tsubaki didn't push her to do anything thankfully. She just followed along and kept an eye on her while she explored. It was when they hit the gardens that Tatsuki decided she could do this. She wouldn't try to run off and live in the woods. She'd deal with the new dress code and try to keep herself together for as long as she could. She'd make new friends here. Friends that weren't likely to run off in the middle of the night for months at a time.

"Would you like that one in your room?" Tsubaki asked.

Tatsuki looked down to see what she was talking about and saw that she'd been weeding around one of the lilies. Her hands were dirty and her nails were a mess, but the flower was just fine.

"I think I'd rather come down and weed," Tatsuki shook her head. "I'm sorry. I used to be better at sensing people around me."

"It's alright," Tsubaki smiled. "I'll make a note of it, that way whenever someone sees you down here, they'll just let you keep on."

Tatsuki nodded and went back to what she was doing before. It had always been calming for her. Pulling weeds from the garden and making sure the leaves were free of parasites. The blossoms were starting to fade, and soon they would seed for the next generation. That was why Tatsuki wasn't overly worried about her illness. Nothing ever left for good. It might take a while, sure, but whenever one thing died, something else was born. A new version, better than the last one. Tatsuki smiled faintly and looked up at the sky. Even the clouds never stayed away for too long after fading.

A girl was coming through the garden now, maybe a year or so older than Tatsuki, and pushing a wheelchair with a...

"When her sister died, she couldn't handle the strain," Tsubaki told her quietly. "Now she has a doll. It's best if you just leave her be."

"Will we have classes together? I get to keep up with my education, don't I?"

"I'll ask Dr. Katagiri about it at the end of the day."

Tatsuki didn't do much else for the rest of the day. Tsubaki managed to talk her into eating a bit, as well as getting some tea into her, but that was taken up in her room. A room which had been filled with her old things while she wandered the grounds. Nothing had been put away or arranged, but the broken frame on her desk had been replaced and a photo album set beneath it. An album filled with friends and family, names beside each one and the familiar handwriting of her mother. A little note about how they met or if they even got along. It made her heart twist and hurt and flutter all at once. So many emotions and memories of her heart were coming up every time she saw someone else's face in there. The only ones missing were those in the replaced frame.

The picture hadn't changed at all, but the frame was silver and covered in twining flowers now; it once held her mother's wedding photo, the only picture left of Tatsuki's father. Now it carried others inside of it. Pushing a box from the bed, Tatsuki sat down with the frame and let herself cry. She let the whole day crash down on her and clutched the memory to her chest tightly. Cold and unfeeling, just a record of something that had happened long ago, but it was dear to her. Smiling beneath the glass were the people most precious to her. The twins who'd played with her and the boy who knew she had more skirts than pants. The girl who smiled and laughed and a silent man who protected them all. There was even a boy with glasses in there. The last happy day they'd all spent together had fireworks going off in the background and it was filled with color and happiness. All of it held perfectly still for the rest of eternity in her arms.

When she woke, it was to the sound of silence. There was no alarm telling her it was time for school and Akira's voice wasn't complaining about tuition fees for college or the lack of money that came from Tatsuki's job at the dojo. There was only darkness and the sound of silent tears. She looked down at her arms and legs out of habit; sleepwalking wasn't a new thing for her, contrary to what her mother thought, but there was no sign of sneaking about. The only thing new to her condition at all was the occasional hallucination brought about by the memory wiping gizmo of the shinigami. Tatsuki set the picture frame back on her desk and stood up slowly, trying to make her eyes and ears adjust to the darkened room. She could walk out of the window at the end of the room. There was a balcony there and an empty chair at a table. The tears might be coming from there.

She doubted it was coming from outside once she saw what had woken her; hallucinations tended to be more vibrantly colored than what she saw as well. There was a little girl sitting in the corner of her room and crying softly. A ratty, dismally colored kimono was tied haphazardly and her hair was a mess on top of her head. Tatsuki moved closer to the little girl crouched in the shadow and felt a chill on her spine. The tingle of a spirit pulsed through her being the closer she got to the child, but Tatsuki couldn't just leave her alone. Not if she needed help. When she was only a few feet from the child, she crouched down and put her hands on her knees.

"Hey, don't cry."

The little girl twitched for a moment before an icy blue eye peeked up over her arm. Her form tensed and Tatsuki pursed her lips at the familiar action.

"If you try to hit me, I'm not going to talk to you."

The child made a sound and slowly relaxed. Her eyes were still on Tatsuki as the martial artist sat down on the floor across from her. She double checked that her robe was fully closed and waited patiently for the girl to say something or do something. She'd stopped crying though, so that was something. A few more minutes passed and Tatsuki smiled at her.

"You know, I used to cry a lot when I was little, I never let anyone see it though. I was scared they'd tease me." Tatsuki pushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. "I promise I won't tell, alright?" The little girl nodded and Tatsuki's smile got just a bit bigger. "Did you live here before? I just moved here. Mom says I was born here though, so I guess I'm a native."

"Sae." The little girl wiped at her eyes and nose. "I'm Sae."

"That's a pretty name," Tatsuki nodded. "I'm Tsuki-nee, and I'd be happy to help you move on." Sae wiped at her eyes and looked around the room. "You lost something, didn't you? I see. Well, can I know what it is?"

"My brother hid my bell." Her voice was watery and just on the verge of crying again.

"I'll try to find it for you," Tatsuki nodded. "When I find your bell, I'll put it in the garden, okay? Under the Hydrangea bush. Then you can move on surrounded by flowers."

"I'll wait for you," Sae smiled. "I'm tired of playing by myself. The other kids are mean."

Tatsuki ran a hand through Sae's hair and felt her heart calm from the action. She felt Sae's energy mellow out and the little ghost girl leaned into her touch just a bit. Then she faded away. Tatsuki wasn't going to break her word though. If there was a bell somewhere in her room, she was going to find it for Sae. The teen stood upright and looked about her room. Everything was still in boxes, so she didn't have to worry about moving many things. As she walked, the floor boards remained squeak free and firm. The walls were boring too.

So where would she hide a bell if she was an annoying elder brother? Better yet, where would she hide it if she was a taller, annoying, exhausted older brother? Tatsuki sat on her bed and her brows furrowed when she jingled. She bounced a few times and the bed stayed quiet, but she had the feeling she was in the right direction when she stood and the bell jingled again. A step forward was silent, as was the step to either side. Tatsuki looked up and wondered about the ceiling. The rest of the hospital had plaster hiding the wires and rafters, but not in her room. When she stood on the bed, her fingers could just grasp the bottom of the wooden beam, but the sound of the bell was louder in her ears.

Tatsuki looked around the room to see if anything was taller and only saw the desk in front of a smaller window. Well, they said it was her room, and she could change it however she liked. Tatsuki hopped down from the bed and drug it over a few feet so she could push her desk closer to the beam in question. Of course, she'd have to finish moving everything around later, but that was later. When the desk was in place, Tatsuki climbed on top of the wood and looked at the beam above her bed. A lot of thing had been hidden away up there. Notecards and little books, keys and toys, and at the far end was a little bell tied to a charm. Tatsuki could reach it if she stretched, but she could also climb down and shift the desk closer. That seemed a bit safer. The heavy wood scraped along the floor again and Tatsuki took her robe off before climbing back up. Her fingers closed around the bell and once her fingers closed around the brass sphere, she began to climb down. Something pushed her before she could bend down though. Something small handed and cold that was now trying to pull at her hair.

Tatsuki couldn't help but punch the little thing on her back. She spun to attack again and scowled to see a little boy growling at her. Little brat had nearly killed her! She told him as much too. He was bigger than Sae, but smaller than Tatsuki, maybe about the size of Karin or Rukia. Unlike the girls however, he looked very much like a boy. His clothes were nearly so bad as Sae's and Tatsuki wondered if the children had died from hunger or disease...or pity. He was started to brace himself for another attack.

"If you don't step off I'm going to shove so much salt down your throat that your ancestors will get purified." Tatsuki thumped him once more for good measure. She leaned close to the little boy, happy that her words had something of an affect. He'd stopped growling at her at least. "Why do you keep making your sister cry? Do you like making her sad?"

"She'll leave me alone," the little boy growled again. "She can't leave! She'll be hurt, and picked on."

"So go with her. Don't make her suffer because you're a coward."

The little boy rushed her and snatched the bell from her hand. He didn't run though. He stood there scowling and bright eyes were staring hard at her. Good. She'd made a point of learning how to push people's buttons when she was younger; it was the only way most boys would agree to fight her. The only way she could get Ichigo to pay attention to her these days was to push him. Tatsuki shook the thoughts from her head. She needed to finish this.

"So, are we going to go put that by the hydrangeas?" She asked. The little boy nodded. "Did you hear my name? What's yours?"

"Rei," he mumbled. He was still upset she'd called him a coward, but Tatsuki could only hope that the fire to keep his sister safe stayed with him in the afterworld. He might end up running around in black if he remained dedicated.

"Alright, well let's get down to the garden, okay?"

"They'll stop you Tsuki-nee," the boy scowled. "In the halls, the living roam around trying to catch you."

Tatsuki pursed her lips before looking at the balcony again. Thanking the gods she wore shorts to bed, Tatsuki went outside and looked for a way down. If she didn't know any better, she'd swear this place was made for sneaking in and out. The rose trellis was nothing but a couple of ladders nailed to the building. Tatsuki hoisted herself over the rail and started descending towards the ground. She paused every so often, listening for the passing night guards and moving quick to avoid their notice. Rei was right about them trying to catch people; she heard one, Hideki, shouting when someone stepped out of their room. A little girl if the crying was right. If she didn't already have a couple of kids to soothe, she'd go up there and kick his ass.

The grass was cool and soft under her feet when she touched down, and damp when she dropped to hide from one of the orderlies patrolling the first floor. Rei didn't have to avoid their sight, but he dropped down too. Together, they crawled along the edge of the building, keeping the bell as quiet as possible until they got to the garden in the back. You could see the ocean from any place in the garden, but Tatsuki was looking for the hydrangeas. The moonlight wasn't as bright as it could be, but her memory was strong enough to remember where a plant was.

Sitting quietly beneath the flowering shrub sat Sae. Hair still messy and kimono still in tatters, but looking much happier and grinning wide when Rei ran over with her bell. The ting-a-ling of bells and the soft giggles of children made her smile and remember. Watching their souls turn into butterflies made her heart flutter with every beat of their wings. She watched over them until they'd flown past her sight, out over the ocean and up into the stars.

"Hey!"

Tatsuki turned just in time to see someone running towards her. It wasn't Hideki, thank god, but the man looked just as upset and even worried at how she was going to act. What the hell was going to happen to her with this disease that made everyone so jumpy? Tatsuki decided not to think about it and instead sat down on the edge of the flower bed. The nurse was slowing down as he came closer and now a light was turning on inside of the building. She'd have to be more careful from now on.

"Nice night for a walk, isn't it?" she asked pleasantly. "Don't worry, I was just sneaking around."

"Miss Arisawa, it's against the rules to be out of your room after lights out." The nurse extended his hand slowly and waited for her to take it. He wasn't a bad looking guy actually, larger in the shoulders and she didn't doubt that he could just pick her up if she refused to go with him. The mohawk was a little out of place, and even in the dark, she could tell he had gray eyes. Eyes that were waiting for her to react badly. If he was expecting her to be crazy then damn it all, she was going to be honest about everything. Katagiri was coming out now, looking highly upset and obviously wondering if they needed to put more security on her floor or if she was just going to be troublesome.

"Sae and Rei had to move on," she explained as she took the nurse's hand. He kept his hold loose as they walked, keeping a non-aggressive demeanor. They walked closer to the building and Katagiri was listening to what she was saying now. "Rei kept hiding her things, and making Sae cry, so I talked some sense into him, and we returned her bell so they could both move on to the next world." She bowed lightly to Katagiri. "I'm sorry, but I couldn't let them suffer."

"Perhaps next time, you can wait until the sun comes up," Katagiri held the door open. "Akihiro, if you could escort Tatsuki back to her room."

Yeah, he'd resigned himself to the idea of her being troublesome.

~!~!~!~

~!~!~

~!~

I know, I started something new when I haven't even updated the last one. But we all know that Slayer is kind of an ongoing process, hahaha! This one has been promised for a while, and it's starting off pretty standard for now. Every chapter is going to be prefaced by a part of the letter Miss Ochi is reading to the class, a sort of summary before you start to read. I want to keep this at 6 chapters, but it might end up being 7 or 8.

Let me know what you think, yeah?


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Tatsuki drifted down the main staircase of the facility, watching as the other patients floated in and out, some fully aware of their surroundings while others merely seemed to exist in a state of melancholia. There were children running through the hall every so often, four or five little girls followed by a sixth. All of them were screaming in delight as they played tag until one suggested they play in the garden. A flurry of white clad little fairies that soon left the hall as quiet as it had been loud. Most of the patients seemed to be milling about or heading towards the dining hall for breakfast but Tatsuki felt no inclination to go with them. She wasn't hungry. In fact, she didn't seem to want anything right now. Not companionship or food or drink, not even the promise of competition was enough to make her want much at all. Was it this place? Was it the people all around her or the lack of color? All of her clothes were white now. Like she had already become a ghost and the rest of her just needed to catch up to the fact. That seemed to be the direction her life was going anyhow. Friends, good friends that she still remembered hadn't seemed to extend the same courtesy to her. Tatsuki shook her head. That wasn't entirely fair.

"Did you sleep well Arisawa-san?"

A nurse was smiling softly at her from lower on the stairs; at some point Tatsuki had sat down upon them to think about those she left behind. The nurse had a clipboard in her hands but her stance and body language told Tatsuki that this woman had trained in the martial arts for at least so long as Tatsuki herself.

"Yeah. Just fine."

"Sae got her bell back?" The nurse asked. At Tatsuki's look she explained that Katagiri had told the entire staff about her late night adventure. Some of them were taking it seriously and waiting for her to have another schizophrenic episode while others were merely going to keep an eye on her so she didn't do anything dangerous. "I remember hearing that story when I first got here you know?"

"About Sae and her bell?" Tatsuki asked. She scooted just a bit when the nurse took a seat beside her.

"Mm, the story goes really far back, when Rougetsu was still just a small fishing village, a little girl was given a bell by a traveller to ward off evil spirits. For a time, Sae and her family were safe from the troubles that came across the rest of the island, but one day her brother grew cross." The nurse flipped a page on her chart so she could draw on the back. Rough and unrefined drawings that got the point across. "The family of the girl he fell in love with was suffering because they'd run out of food. Every time his beloved saw his sister and her bell, she would run away and complain about the dreadful noise. So he hid the bell away and invited his beloved to dinner so their parents could arrange a marriage."

Tatsuki swore she heard someone laugh behind her though she saw nothing when she turned to look. The nurse didn't react at all. She remained calm and collected, questioning with only a look before Tatsuki shook her head.

"Well, little did her know, his beloved and her family were yurei that had been feeding on the villagers. When they came to dinner, Sae and her brother and their entire family were devoured." The nurse had finished her choppy drawing and Tatsuki realized it wasn't choppy at all. It was a very lovely picture of a bell, Sae's bell...attached to a key. "They weren't really Yurei though. I think they were victims of Getsuyuu, because the story takes place in the winter, and the Kiragou happens in the spring."

Tatsuki couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Not many things die in the spring. Nothing but snow and frost, and they really just morph into something new."

"That's very true Arisawa-san. Would you like to go to lunch now?"

Tatsuki started. Hadn't she sat down before breakfast time? She couldn't be losing time. And there was no way it had taken that long to tell a story. She tried to spot a clock but found it rather fruitless. Clocks and Mirrors were two things she had yet to spot in this place.

"Ah, I'm sorry, we serve lunch much earlier here," the nurse was quick to clarify. "Everyone here is so sensitive to the moon, if we were to have lunch when the sun was at it's highest, no one would eat, so we have it from ten to eleven."

"Oh, okay. I'm not that crazy yet."

"No one thinks you're crazy Arisawa-san. Well, maybe some people do, but they're not important, are they?" The nurse stood up and helped Tatsuki to her feet. "Let's get you fed. Katagiri has some new flowers for the garden and he wants to see if he can talk Sendou-san into joining you for classes."

"Sendou?" Tatsuki asked as they walked into the dining hall. The little girls from before were crowded around a table, chatting happily and eating without worry. One of them was missing though. How strange. Tatsuki could have sworn there were six of them before. She counted them once more to make sure but their number stayed the same.

"Right over there," the nurse pointed to a woman in black sitting with a...a doll and her own personal doctor. "You're the same age, and you're both very smart, so he'd like to see if being in a social setting might help the two of you. Her doctor is asking her about it now."

Tatsuki watched a bit longer until Sendou looked sharply at her doctor with a look of anger on her face. The doctor pointed in Tatsuki's direction and suddenly the glare was turned onto Tatsuki. She didn't back down. There was a moment as each stared at each other across the hall before Sendou looked and asked her doll something. Tatsuki wasn't so crazy that she was talking to dolls and she sincerely hoped she never would be. Sendou glanced up twice more before speaking to her doctor. Tatsuki continued following her nurse to another table on the far side of the room. Nurse Tsubaki was sitting there with another woman. A woman just a bit older than Tatsuki, but smiling kindly and waiting for her to sit down. She was gorgeous, anyone with eyes could see that. Her hair long hair behaved and her eyes were soft without being naive. Even her skin was perfect and smooth. It made the tomboy and former fighter feel inferior next to her. It made her feel like less of a girl, or too much like a girl and not womanly enough.

"We were talking about some of the local myths," the new nurse explained to Tsubaki. "But now I have to go see is Magaki-sensei is willing to exit his room."

"He just started a new painting," Tsubaki shook her head. "Best to take something up to him instead." The nurse bowed quickly before leaving Tatsuki with Tsubaki and the unnamed woman. "Tatsuki-san, this is Sakuya-sama, she lives across the hall from you."

"It's nice to meet you," Tatsuki bowed lightly before sitting down at the third place setting.

"I heard what you did last night." Sakuya leaned on the table and gave a dreamy smile. Her voice wasn't doubting or condescending, but supportive and genuinely happy with what Tatsuki had done. "That was very kind."

"What else could I have done?" Tatsuki shrugged. Someone wheeled a cart past them, dropping off three bowls of rice before moving to the next table. Someone else came next, followed by a few more people, each leaving three more plates behind. This was lunch. "If I hadn't helped, Sae would have kept crying, and I can't stand it when people suffer."

"I heard you're going to continue your studies," Sakuya spoke up after a few moments. "For after."

"Yeah, I mean, it's something to do, right? Some way to try and keep my memory strong. I heard, I heard that if you keep learning new things, the chances of having Alzheimer's are lower, so maybe it could help with this. Just a little bit." Tatsuki set her food down and looked over at Sakuya. "Did you finish school?"

"No," she shook her head. "There were complications and by the time they ended, I was here."

"I'm sorry. Maybe you could sit in if your doctor thinks its alright."

Sakuya laughed and agreed that she could convince him of it. Eventually Tatsuki relaxed around her neighbor and their nurse. Both women were older than Tatsuki by a decade, but still, having someone who was acted her age was nice. Tsubaki had proven to be very kind and compassionate yesterday and Tatsuki could see that her patience and kindness were a part of who she was. Even when Sakuya twitched as someone passed the table, fingers tightening around her spoon for a moment before continuing on with the story she'd been telling. She was also very kind when Tatsuki had to go and have her first physical. She didn't send her away or dismiss her. She and Sakuya both walked her to Katagiri's office, chatting happily and asking if Tatsuki would like to meet them in the garden when she was done.

"Good morning Arisawa-san," her doctor greeted when she entered the room. "How did you sleep?"

"Very well once I finished what I was doing." Tatsuki hopped up onto the exam table and flinched when the cold vinyl touched the back of her thighs. She needed a longer dress if she wasn't allowed to wear shorts. "Are we allowed to go shopping down in the village?"

"Did you need anything?" her doctor asked over his glasses. He wasn't bringing up last night, at least not yet she realized.

"Clothes. I didn't really wear that many dresses back home, I was always too busy training. And most of the ones I brought aren't white." Tatsuki watched as he pulled a thermometer from one of the drawers. "I have money. Mom left me a credit card to use while I still could."

"Let's see how you're doing before we make any plans, alright?"

She didn't have much choice. The answer he'd given was so out of habit that it made her worry about what was going to happen. Tatsuki had glimpsed her future as she'd walked around the facility, caught grown women obsessing over current events or large men behaving more like children. Forgetting who they were and the years they'd collected.

"You seem quite calm," Katagiri spoke as he took her temperature.

"I'm wondering how long it will be before I start to fade like the others." Tatsuki tried not to sigh. "I was so happy back in Karakura. I didn't need to worry about this because there was so much reiatsu that it pressed the cracks together."

"Reiatsu?" Katagiri asked. He was leaning forward on his stool, blood pressure cuff draped over his knee and clipboard in hand.

"Spiritual pressure. It was so strong there, but here...it's almost empty. I never even noticed until..."

The rest of the checkup passed without incident and Tatsuki was 'allowed' to go into a specific part of the town with one of the nurses. The big male nurse who'd come up to her last night. Kurosawa Akihiro with his mohawk and the beginnings of a tattoo peeking out from under his sleeve. He had reiatsu. She could see it floating around him in wide blue ribbons and she could feel it grazing her own but it didn't help as much as Ichigo's had. Blue ribbons. How strange.

"Arisawa-san," he nodded at her. "Are you ready to go into the village or did you need to get something first?"

"I've got my purse and someone to carry everything," she shook her head. "Let's go."

She'd driven up through the village with her mother and knew within minutes that this wasn't even trying to be that same village. This was a farce. A place set up by the caring villagers and run by family members of the hospital staff or the patients as something to make them feel normal for a little bit. A cafe over here, a clothing shop, a flower shop, and a place that had a little bit of everything.

"How are you adjusting?" Aki asked as he sat with her in front of the fake cafe. "Really adjusting, don't try to bullshit."

"I hate it." Tatsuki was reminded of someone when she spoke to him, but she couldn't place it exactly. "I hate that everyone looks at me like I'm some sort of time bomb. I hate how everything I say is looked at with a magnifying glass and how all they want me to do is be calm and happy. I've never been a calm person, ever, and now I'm being told to sit quietly so I don't aggravate this stupid condition or upset the natives."

Her handler was smiling just a bit, almost laughing as he leaned back in his chair and kept a careful eye on their surroundings.

"Why'd you pick nursing?" she asked him. "You're a fighter. I can see it."

"Why'd you start pre-med?" Aki countered. "Gets boring after a while, the constant struggle to be the best, the fear that you'll never be enough. Then you hit your peak, and it's all kind of...kind of meaningless, you know? I wasn't really helping anyone, and I got into more trouble than I want to admit."

Aki reached up to rub his neck before he leaned forward and looked at Tatsuki.

"You've got that blue about you, same as I do. Couple of the patients too. Makes the doctors think they're worse off than they are, and a lot of them are, but that's the reason I came here, to Rougetsu." Aki wasn't sayig it outright but she knew what he was talking about. "You and Sakuya-sama, you've got it the worst. Except you know what's going on. That you're not hallucinating on top of it all."

"I thought I was for a while." Tatsuki focused on the blue of his spiritual energy and watched as they ribboned off and fluttered around him. Hers did much the same, though more violet tinged that outright blue. Even when she'd cornered Urahara those months ago and demanded to know what the hell was going on, he hadn't been able to explain why she had blue reishi while those around her were in red or bright white. "Do you know why it's blue?" she asked as a waitress came up to refill their coffee.

Their waitress paused and looked to Aki; was she going crazy? Should the woman answer or run away? Aki only nodded and waved her off, answering the question once the woman was far enough away she wouldn't think they were both mad.

"I was told it had to do with my bloodline. This old woman on Mount Hikami said it was a mark of the family's duty to the dead or something. She said, it didn't matter how far or fast I tried to run, it would always come down to blood."

"I wonder if it's something to do with Rougetsu." Tatsuki leaned forward and rest her chin on her folded hands. "I've never seen blue energy before this." Never mind she'd only recently begun to see another person's aura.

"Maybe you'll get to see some other colors before long."

Tatsuki was putting her new clothes away and unpacking her boxes when her next visitor came. Her kimono had been hung on the wall with care and a few of her trophies were placed on the shelves to keep reminding her of who she was. Some of her favorite books were closer to the bed and the desk and she was just starting to fold and put away all of her clothes when the knock sounded on her doorframe. Tatsuki glanced over her shoulder to see Sakuya standing there, her own door open to the world like Tatsuki's.

"Hey, come in," she called to the older woman. The ribbons of her spiritual energy were tangled up and Tatsuki wondered if her own looked the same. "What's up?"

"I came to see how you were." Sakuya came just a bit further into the room, looking around at everything Tatsuki was putting up or hadn't yet gotten to. She paused in front of the kimono and Tatsuki noticed the doll in her arms as Sakuya admired the garment.

"My mother thought I'd be able to make it to the coming of age festival." Tatsuki hung the last dress in her wardrobe and shut the door. She continued to face the wood for a half second longer before speaking. "I thought I would too. I thought I'd be able to wear it and maybe, there's this guy and I guess I always thought we'd go together."

"It's not so great, being together always. He told me he wanted that once, and I thought I did too." Sakuya lifted the doll a bit higher. Held it a bit tighter. "The one memory I don't want comes back to haunt me sometimes." She looked at Tatsuki and their eyes locked. There was no battle of wills or challenge, merely a human connection. One soul finding another as it lost itself in the abyss. "You're not afraid of me."

"No."

"You're not afraid of Getsuyuu Syndrome either."

"No. Not yet." Tatsuki leaned against her wardrob and looked at the kimono. "I know I should be. I'm sure I will be. Right now though, I'm not afraid of anything. It's liberating, freeing, but I can't seem to find the drive to do anything."

There was a silence between the two of them and Tatsuki eventually wondered if she could build a friendship with anyone here. Just as she was about to let it go, Sakuya spoke up again.

"I've been here for almost eight years now. I'd had Getsuyuu for longer, since I was six, but I didn't have to come here until the incident. I was just turning fourteen."

"That sounds like a shitty birthday present," Tatsuki tried to cheer the woman up. It wasn't quite working, but there was the beginnings of a smile there. "I've had it since I was five. My father, he left one day. Just left us and I forgot why, but my heart, my heart remembers pain and longing. I have it written down somewhere, but every time I look at it I get angry and all of the happiness my heart remembers turns to bitterness and hate." She looked over at Sakuya and tried to smile. "So I stopped looking it up."

"Maybe one day i'll be able to do the same. How old are you Arisawa-san?"

"I'm seventeen. About to be eighteen." Tatsuki sat on her desk and gestured for Sakuya to have a seat on her bed. It creaked silently as the slight woman settled onto the colorful comforter; she had a reddish sweater that nearly blended in with the silk. "Please, call me Tatsuki."

"Tatsuki-chan is nearly eighteen. Almost four years younger than me." Sakuya covered her dolls ears. "I'm twenty-one."

"Really? You act much older."

Tatsuki and Sakuya continued speaking on the small parts of their lives. Pieces they could remember, that they wanted to remember and little things that they kept around to remind themselves of who they were and what they'd been. Both of them had been so young when the sickness had come upon them and when Sakuya mentioned her mother's death Tatsuki's heart clenched and she remembered her father's. The strike that had cracked their souls but Tatsuki had something that helped her for a little while.

"I wish I knew what it was. I thought it was martial arts, or friends, but I'm wondering now if it's something more metaphysical." Somehow they'd both ended up on the bed, laying on their stomachs as they talked. "I wonder if maybe I traded without realizing it, or if it was stolen."

"Let me know if you figure out what it was."

The room began to chill a few moments later. Much quicker and far more dramatic than it should have so close to supper. This was the chill of deep night, when the moon was a sliver in the sky and rain was on the edge of the sky. Tatsuki meant to keep her breathing steady so she wouldn't alarm her new companion but Sakuya was overtly trying not to pay attention to it. When something began to crawl out from between the floorboards, seeping up into a puddle of ink before it solidified, Tatsuki wondered how the hell Sakuya could make herself not look at it. The girl who'd been quiet and calm before was trying to speak in a near to fervent tone while the puddle turned into a young woman. Out of habit, Tatsuki began to reach for the wards she'd started carrying back in Karakura only to find them absent.

The ink girl wasn't attacking though. She was watching them longingly and listening as Sakuya rambled.

"Don't you think?" The elder woman asked. Tatsuki realized Sakuya was desperate too at least seem normal and healthy.

"I missed all of that," Tatsuki admitted. She turned to the ghost. "What did she say? I was distracted by your entrance." There was a pause as Sakuya finally acknowledged the ghost's existence. Back and forth she looked between Tatsuki and the spirit. "How are you, by the way?"

"I'm as well as I can be," the ink girl smiled happily. "Maybe better, because you can see me!"

"I certainly can...you're not going to try and attack us, are you?" Tatsuki had no idea how to get rid of ghosts beyond screaming for help from a nearby shinigami -of which there were none- or finding their bell. Of which there were none.

"Oh! No, no no no, I wouldn't do that." The sodden creature smiled at them with a tilted head. "Unless you mention how I died."

"Right." Tatsuki looked over at Sakuya who still seemed quite shocked by the idea she wasn't halucinating. "You're not used to talking to ghosts, are you?"

"You can see her."

"Yeah."

"You can see her."

"...yeah," Tatsuki nodded again.

"You-"

"I think it's established that she can see me," Ink interrupted her. "If it helps, I can see both of you as well."

Tatsuki wasn't entirely sure it did help, because now Sakuya was on the verge of hyperventilating. The teen moved closer to the woman, helping her to sit upright instead of at the angle she had been tilting at. She wasn't used to this. Ink gav a soft goodbye and promised to come again later, when things had calmed down but Sakuya wasn't assured by the words. She'd been taught for so long that she was mad and now meeting someone who saw the exact same. Shared madness, maybe, but no longer alone. Sometimes it was overwhelming, knowing that there was another person who knew exactly what you were going through.

"Sakuya, it's okay." Tatsuki took the woman's hands into her own. "It's okay, you're okay."

"No, no, because if you can see her, that means I'm affecting you." Sakuya wouldn't even look into her eyes.

"I've been staring at and talking to ghosts since before I came here," Tatsuki told her sharply. "The only time I didn't see them was when I was around that berry headed idiot and even that didn't last very long. We're not hallucinating. Do you hear me?"

"How do you know?" Sakuya asked. "How do you really Know we're not hallucinating?"

"Because this is real." Tatsuki lifted the edge of her dress, glad to have shorts on underneath and showed the great scar left behind by Acidwire. "I've been kidnapped, I've been attacked, I've even been rushed to the ER because of toxic spit." Tatsuki let the dress fall and knelt in front of Sakuya once more. "It's all in my file. And if I did make it up, if my mind did trick me into thinking any of it was real, i'm not afraid of it. It just means I have a vivid imagination."

"How? How are you so fearless of losing yourself?" Sakuya was calming slightly, relaxing as Tatsuki grinned over her enthusiastic imagination.

"Change happens. Night become day, always. The snow will always melt and tides will always rise and fall. People are born, they live, they die, being worried about this, it takes too much energy to worry about it." Tatsuki's grin fell a bit and she grew slightly sad. "That's not to say I don't have my moments, that i've never cried myself to sleep because I forgot something, but I try not to."

"And the ghosts?" Sakuya asked.

"It's our duty as human beings to end suffering. As mediums, we're able to help the dead as well."

~!~1 week later~!~

Tatsuki awoke the next morning to rain. A storm had come in during the night and though she and Sakuya had heard the first drops falling last night neither had suspected that it might assault the island with such ferocity. It was the first genuine activity Tatsuki had felt since she'd arrived. The stagnant and the cloying energy was rippling. Moving. The world felt more like it was supposed to when it rained and though she couldn't see the sky, she felt more energetic. Like she used to be. Tatsuki turned to look at the clock she'd found in the mock village and smiled to see the time. She'd slept through the night without rising. Her window was still locked and the door was still closed.

Getting dressed wasn't fun. The air was cold and damp and not for the first time she missed wearing pants. All she was allowed were leggings and only if she wore them underneath. Although Sakuya had confessed to her that White wasn't an enforced color, merely recommended. If Sendou was allowed to run around in black and the other demanding patients were allowed to wear red, blue, even yellow, then all Tatsuki had to do was give them a reason for her choice. So she'd pulled the robe which had once been her spring yukata out from her wardrobe. The garment she'd packed for sentimental value over any practical reason. It was the bright color in this dreary world and that was enough of a reason in her mind. Moonflowers and swirling clouds dotted the deep blue, a single bright moon clinging to her left sleeve. It reminded her of the last festival she'd gone to, to watch the fireworks with her friends and her family; hadn't that been strange to see with her broken arm.

Maybe she'd write Karin and Yuzu today. She missed the twins. The closest she'd ever really had to siblings and she'd seen the sadness behind their eyes when she left for this place.

Her clock continued to tick as she wrote to them. Pencil and paper over emails or phone calls. Patients weren't allowed to use them for fear of causing problems. Even so, writing was helpful. Therapeutic. It let her ask them questions about school. Were they excited to go into middle school next year? Any new boys in their lives or maybe just new hobbies? Tatsuki wrote each of them their own letter, and one for Isshin. Isshin who'd been such a force of nature in her life that it was strange knowing she may never see him again. Even if she died here, she'd just stay on Rougetsu, never to see the land that had taken so much attention from so many people.

She was signing off on the final letter when she realized who she'd written it to. The fourth and final had gone to Ichigo.

She gathered them up and put her sweater on before leaving her room. Soft flats tapped quietly on the hardwood floors and area rugs as she went down the stairs and the halls. Right down to the first floor where she dodged the giggling girls once more...all six of them. Tatsuki glanced back a second later and there were five again.

"Arisawa-san?"

Tatsuki ignored the mystery; it would have to wait.

"I have mail." She handed the fours letters over. "When does mail go out?"

"We send them to the post office at the end of the day, before they close." The nurse on duty had short hair and tatsuki had seen her far more often than some of the staff here. Shiratsuki her nametag read. "That way, all of the patients can get their mail out if they want."

"Not many do, do they?" Tatsuki asked. The little girls ran past again and the sixth girl flickered just enough for Tatsuki to realize she was a ghost. "I think it's nice that they can have fun."

"Soon they might have a new playmate," Shiratsuki hummed. She'd put Tatsuki's letter in a pile of what looked like personal belongings. "I'm not supposed to tell, but the director wants to bring one of the patients from Haibara Hospital over. She's been ill since she was very young."

"Like us?"

"A bit, yes. She's almost seven now I think."

"I'm glad you do things you're not supposed to," Tatsuki smiled. "Thank you, for making sure they get sent."

The nurse started before smiling brightly and sending her off to breakfast. Much like the first time, Tatsuki was relegated to the table on the far side by the windows. Tsubaki wasn't there, nor was Sakuya, but that was alright. The radiator was giving off heat and the staff seemed just fine with letting her sit alone with some tea. The room was nearly empty save for Tatsuki and a few others. A young woman, just older than Sakuya, an older gentleman with a pale red robe and striped pajamas. There was another still, further along in the room who couldn't seem to decide if they wanted to come into the room or not. Tatsuki moved on from that, taking in the details of the room and noticing what was there and what wasn't. The rain kept falling as she sat there, tapping against the glass while the others sipped at their own tea or merely enjoyed the sound.

Someone was coming over to her as she finished her second cup of tea. A doctor, older and more refined looking than Katagiri. He was also thicker looking. Thicker, bigger, more refined but also wilder in his eyes. There was something odd about him. She could see Katagiri standing by the door, watching carefully and nervously until he spotted someone else. This was the director. This was Sakuya's father and the man who was committed to curing a disease that wasn't his to fix. The man even Sakuya feared not for his temper but for his calm.

"May I join you?" the older doctor asked when he reached her table.

"Of course," Tatsuki nodded. She put her feet on the floor instead of leaving them to rest on one of the free chairs around her.

"My name is Doctor Haibara. I understand there's been a bit of confusion since you arrived."

"I'm not confused at all so it must be on your end," she quipped. She really couldn't help it. Too many years of living in Karakura and training with an almost all male team did that.

"Maybe so," Haibara gave a small chuckle. "I came to ask about how you managed your symptoms on the mainland." He didn't pull out a notebook or lean closer, her didn't even lean back, he merely listened for anything she might tell him.

"I don't really know. After my father died, and my mother remarried, we were on our way here. I was supposed to have checked in a long time ago but one day we were in Karakura." Tatsuki set her teacup down and smiled faintly at the thought. "I went to a dojo, my first sensei had recommended I meet his friend before...and when I was in there I felt alive. I made my first real friend there. Then at some point everything started to fade again. My friends started leaving, there was a gas leak at the dojo and...I just kept losing people. I'd go to practice and I couldn't and everything just...fell apart."

"Doctor Katagiri said you mentioned something called Reiatsu," Haibara was focused in this. Now he leaned forward, steeling his fingers and pressing them to his mouth.

"Spiritual energy." She knew he wasn't going to leave her alone about it. Not when she was already causing problems and it was only a week in. "It's stagnant here, but there it was like a whirlpool. An endless waterfall of spiritual energy that pressed everything back together."

They sat a moment longer and Tatsuki sipped at her tea while the doctor thought over her words. Finally he spoke up again. He wanted her to continue practicing martial arts if she could. If not, or if it was too straining, they'd find something else for her to do. Something with purpose and steady routine. It was for that reason he was going to allow her to continue her studies as well. Routine and familiarity had been high in Tatsuki's life before this, that, combined with her belief in reiatsu may have been what helped her for so long. Before he left, Haibara promised to talk more about what she knew.

It didn't sound like a very good promise.

No longer in the mood to be so exposed, so open, Tatsuki set her teacup down and pulled her robe tighter around her frame. The rain was no longer soothing her either. She wanted to go to her room, to go home and sit in the sun or under the cherry trees. Anything could be better than this right now. As she began to climb the steps she heard something. One of the little doves who ran about was caught by a little crow. Just as the girl in black went to push the other down the stairs, Tatsuki ran up to put and end to it. She wasn't quick enough to stop the girl from falling, but she did catch her before she hit the ground. The silver and blue of her yukata fluttered around them as the fighter knelt on the stairs with the shaking girl in her arms. All the while the golden eyed little girl at the top of the stairs glared at her.

"What is your damage?" Tatsuki called up to her. "To cause suffering in a place like this...it's shameful."

"Don't make her upset nee-san," the little girl in her arms whispered. A nurse came up the stairs, hurrying to try and get the crow girl back into her room. She only continued to glare. Even when another nurse came to carry her away and to her room, the girl in black kept her eyes glued to Tatsuki.

"She should be more worried about upsetting me," Tatsuki scoffed. She looked down at the little girl in her arms and her lips pursed. "You're bleeding. Are you alright? Did she hurt you?"

"Ayako says I'm her favorite toy." The little girl hadn't loosed her hold on Tatsuki, but her face had come out to see who'd saved her. "Now she's going to try something later."

"She's welcome to try," Tatsuki brushed the girl's hair away from her eyes. "I'm not going to let her though. What's your name little dove?"

Madoka stayed on the steps with Tatsuki until she'd stopped shaking. The young girl was descended from shrine maidens but that hadn't helped her. Her mother hadn't even brought her to the hall, she'd left it to the staff to pick Madoka up as she began her daughter's funeral. Tatsuki's robe had wrapped around the both of them at some point during her story and when Aki came up the stairs to tell them lunch was ready, it was with great loss that they had to finally separate from one another. Madoka reminded Tatsuki of doing the same sort of thing once before for Orihime. She couldn't exactly remember what she'd done though. She couldn't_ remember_.

"Don't worry," Tatsuki brushed Madoka's hair back. So long as there was someone who needed her to be strong, she couldn't let them see that she'd forgotten something so vitally important. "I'll be right here."

Tatsuki flipped through the pages of her journal, trying to find some mention of How she'd met Orihime. She knew it was during school, just before they'd both started attending Karakura High and she was mostly sure they hadn't known each other during middle school but she couldn't remember what had happened to make them friends.

"What did I save her from?" Tatsuki flicked through page after page. All of her journals had come to Rougetsu with her, set onto the shelves in order and the one in her hands had detailed the year before school. Had their first meeting been so insignificant that she hadn't even bothered to record it? Had her first days knowing this girl been so ignorable? "Where is it!"

Tatsuki debated throwing the journal across the room when she saw it go from 'training went...' to 'hanging with Orihime again...' with so much innocence it made her sick. This was it. This was the beginning of her end. She'd already started losing time back in Karakura; confusing which adventure Ichigo was on and mixing up her tournaments. This wasn't the same. Tatsuki sank to the ground and gripped the little book tight against her chest, allowing the frustration and tears to start falling. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair that she was losing the only things she had left of them. How could she just keep losing everyone? The tears turned to sobs and soon the fighter was laying upon the cold wood, eyes pained and chest struggling for breath as she tried to remember something, Anything about how she'd met one of the most important people in her life.

~!~

Sakuya knocked gently on the door of her new neighbor and friend. She'd heard it earlier. Tatsuki's first real loss of who she was. It was hard to ignore when they were so close and the girl was normally so kind and caring. Bold, yes, but that made Sakuya like her all the more. When there was no answer from her knock, Sakuya made the choice to enter. There had been too many times when someone had made the choice to cut their losses. Thankfully Tatsuki-chan was still breathing and hunched over her desk, writing furiously in a journal as tears continued to fall down her face.

Sakuya walked closer, making noise so the young woman wouldn't jump or lash out when Tatsuki finally noticed her. Her writing slowed when Sakuya stood over her. She didn't jump when her hand came to rest on her shoulder. Instead she let loose a shaking breath and covered her face with her hands.

"It's always worse when the moon is like this," Sakuya bent to see the girl better. "The sorrow of the moon echoes in our broken hearts and we're left alone on earth to try and make sense of it all."

"I hate it." Tatsuki scrubbed at her face and looked up at Sakuya. "I hate it. It's so dark in here, and I just, it's too loud to try and figure out what i've forgotten."

Sakuya let a smile smile creep out onto her face. Tatsuki didn't know the tricks to managing her illness because she'd been so well cared for all her life. The older woman took her by the hands and began to pull her over to the window where the moon was shining bright through the glass. Silvery beams hit their skin and their faces and while the sorrow was clearer now, it wasn't so dissonant. It was easier to think. Like a sad song was playing in the background instead of blasting in the next room.

"It's better now," Tatsuki breathed out. Her eyes were still red and watery, but she looked more like the girl she had been this morning. "Is it because of the rain?"

"No. It's because of the moon. The clouds parted, and all of the emotions that had built up and gathered are cloying the air. But the light, it cuts through it all." Sakuya looked out to where the moonlight shone off of the beach and the ocean. "Before I had to come here, I would play in the surf every night. It made me so happy."

Sakuya was nearly lost in her thoughts when Tatsuki began to unlatch the large windows. Her kimono was pulled off and slung over her shoulder as the young woman began to climb out of the window.

"Tsuki-chan!" Sakuya tried to stop her.

"What? You say it helps, right?" Tatsuki gave her a look and a choice. She could come with or she could stay here. The choice was easy in the end. To climb down the trellis was easy and to avoid being spotted and dragged back was exciting. It added mirth and danger to the melencholy that had settled over her.

"I haven't snuck out in years."

"Well be quiet or we'll get caught."

The soft thump of their feet on the grass was the only sound that followed until they'd made it out of the facility. The occasional hiss or soft curse as small sticks or thistles caught their feet in the woods. All of that was soon lost when the soft sound of the waves overtook everything else and the beach was brighter than their rooms could hope to be. This was better. This was good. Even when the inky ghost girl could be spotted in the ocean, smiling and swimming, the two of them didn't want anything else but to continue sitting in the soft light while the dreck and wasteful emotions of those around them was washed away.

Sakuya was just beginning to fall into a soft doze when cold water splashed across her face.

Eyes shot open and Tatsuki was fighting her laughter from within the waves.

"You little brat," Sakuya smiled. A smile full of vengeance that soon erupted into laughter as the two of them abandoned the dry sand in favor of having fun the way they used to. Hours full of wading through water, splashing, exploring, watching the tide pools and the life within or building odd structures in the sand for the water to channel into.

It was close to dawn when Sakuya realized they weren't alone. Director Haibara was standing there on one of the dunes, bright white coat standing out as the sea grass waved in the early morning breeze. When she recognized his appearance he began to make his way down the dunes towards them. She couldn't tell if he was smiling or not. Tatsuki realized he was there as well and stood up from where she'd been sitting in the sand.

"I think we've been found out Tsuki-chan," Sakuya let out a half sigh when he was close enough.

"Looks like we're heading back to the slam boss," the younger girl shook her head.

"Your disappearance wasn't even noticed until we received phone calls about mysterious giggling." The director was smiling. That meant they weren't in trouble. Sakuya had always preferred to see her father smiling. "Not that they needed to call. I could hear the two of you from my office."

"Oh," Tatsuki dusted the sand from herself and bent to pick up her discarded kimono. "We'll try to be quieter next time."

"Your friend is just as precocious as you were," her father laughed. "Come. I've made sure your entrance won't be noted by the wrong people."

As they walked back to Rougetsu Hall Sakuya felt hopeful for that moment when the sun rose. She'd had fun again. She hadn't had fun in years and most importantly, interacting with Ink and Tsuki-chan had helped something in her heart click back into place. She wasn't remembering things but she was certainly aware of an emotion she thought she'd lost. That gave her hope.

~!~Three months after Tatsuki's Arrival on Rougetsu Island~!~

Ichigo stayed behind when everyone else filed out. Keigo with a box in his arms while Mizuiro held the door open. Both gave Ichigo a strange look before they left the room. He and Orihime both were standing in front of the woman's desk, waiting for her to give them her attention while Chad and Ishida stood by the door. Their presence was comforting even if the look on the teacher's face was anything but.

"Now," Ochi folded her hands on top of her desk. "I think you should both sit down for this."

She didn't continue until they did. That made Ichigo more nervous than before.

"I'm sure you noticed Arisawa wasn't here today." Ochi took a deep breath. "She hasn't attended school since almost a week after you lot took an early vacation. I don't know how she contracted it, or even what it truly is, but Arisawa was diagnosed with Getsuuyuu Syndrome not too long after you left. She stayed just long enough to get her paperwork in order and say goodbye."

"Getsuuyuu..." Orihime shook her head. "I don't understand, what is it?"

"No one knows for a certainty. Some people think it's brought on by stress or trauma, a weak immune system, others think it's genetic. Then again, it's supposed to be a curse, so who really knows?" Ochi placed the letter in front of them before closing her briefcase. "Whatever it is, Arisawa woke up in the hospital three times before they realized what was going on."

"The hospital?" Orihime leaned closer. "Was she hurt?"

"She'd almost been hit by a car the last time she'd been sleepwalking." Ochi shook her head. "She's lucky it was only a car that last time instead of falling into the river again."

Tatsuki never sleepwalked. Maybe they hadn't slept over at the others house recently, or even in the last few years, but the only times Ichigo had ever known her to so much as twitch in her sleep had been as children. He'd wake up and she be curled up against him, holding tightly and he'd go back to sleep because the world wasn't as loud when she was there. Ichigo took up the letter in front of him. Her handwriting was different now, less jerking and more fluid. The words she used were different and he didn't like it at all. As soon as he got home he was going to open the mail his father had tried to give him before. He'd thought he could ignore it, find Tatsuki and talk to her face to face instead of letting a piece of paper end what was between them.

"Where is she?" Ichigo finally asked. "Which hospital?"

"The Arisawa family moved back to Rougetsu Island." Miss Ochi stood from her seat. "I'm sorry you had to find out this way. It's probably a good thing none of us saw it happen up close."

"Ochi!" Ichigo called out to her when she reached the door. "Was Tatsuki the only person who got sick?"

"So far as I know," Ochi nodded before leaving.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~

So! There's a short summary of what Getsuuyuu Syndrome is from the human world's perspective. It's a sickness that targets people who've suffered great loss or trauma where the person afflicted slowly begins to lose their sense of self, including the memories they cherish most. It's slow at first, and tends to show up in children, but as it progresses, the symptoms get worse. Check out Fatal Frame 4 for more info on it. I am altering it quite a bit from it's original incarnation though, so maybe just wait until Urahara gives Ichigo the lowdown in the next chapter ^_^;

Also, most everything that happens with Ichigo and Co. happens about three months after Tatsuki checked in and became a patient. Hence the strange gaps and timeline inconsistencies. At some point the timelines will merge and travel along the same route, but for now it's kinds of holes and gaps.

And yes! Tatsuki forgot how she met Orihime!


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter 3_

_There are a few little girls who often come to visit us. One is a bit like me, only smaller and Misaki doesn't know how to fight. Madoka tends to stick closer to me than Misaki does; she hangs around Sakuya most. It's nice to have someone I can protect here._

* * *

><p>Time passed in Rougetsu hall in a blur of slow days and meaningless nights. Every morning she would wake up, she would go down to the front desk to check her mail or receive her assignments from Katagiri, and she would have breakfast. After breakfast she would go into the garden to pull weeds or up into her room to practice her kata. She would shower, dress, and lunch would follow shortly after. Every day was carefully marked and recorded now. The loss of Orihime in her memory had been traumatizing; she couldn't lose others. She couldn't lose Keigo or Mizuiro, she couldn't think of forgetting Ryo or Ishida, certainly not Chad. The twins had been writing to her more often now and out of paranoia more than need Tatsuki had written down the first time she'd ever met the twins. She glued their letter into the pages of her journal and taped a photo of them to her wall. The first girls she'd ever wanted to protect were growing up.<p>

"Tsuki-nee?"

Tatsuki turned to see Madoka standing in her doorway with a bloodied lip and tearstreaks down her face. She didn't wait for another word, instead hurrying over and pulling Madoka into her arms. Ayako had gotten to her again and Tatsuki felt guilt for not being there and rage for not protecting her.

"Let me see," Tatsuki sat back on the ground. She was still dressed in her leggings and the t-shirt she'd been practicing in, not excited to shower and change back into her dress. A good thing because Madoka didn't look like she needed a doctor so much as someone willing to fight off her assailant. "What happened?"

"Ayako found me on my way back from breakfast." Madoka tilted her head so Tatsuki could see her chin. "I got away from her and came up here as fast as I could."

Not to a nurse. The nurses were all too scared of the girl and in all honesty Tatsuki was creeped out by Ayako too. That wasn't an excuse to let things like this keep happening. She led the girl to the window before going to get a damp cloth from beside the sink. There were perks to being such an odd case. Her own first aide kit and the small kitchenette were very helpful when it came to cleaning Madoka up. Her lip wasn't the only thing injured either. Closer inspection showed that her wrists were bruised and there were faint bitemarks and cuts on her neck and legs respectively. The external pain would pass, it would fade away. The scars left on her soul and her mind would not. Especially if she was flinching when Ayako herself came to Tatsuki's door.

Yellow eyes were burning with anger and determination as she stood outside of the room, leaning on the frame while scissors glinted in her hands.

"Shouldn't you be eating babies or something?" Tatsuki snapped at her. "What are you even doing here?"

"You have my toy," Ayako scowled at her. "I want her back. She's not finished."

"You step a single toe in this room and you'll be the one who's finished kid." Tatsuki stood up and in front of Madoka, crossing her arms and not bothering to acknowledge the growing presence of Ink in the corner. She couldn't right now. "I mean it. If you lay a single hand on her it's not going to be pretty."

There was a moment in which Ayako stared at tatsuki with a measuring sneer. Just at the edge of disdain until finally the little girl's grip on her scissors tightened and she looked ready to move. Tatsuki only raised a brow at her and let out a half snort. She'd taken on a lot scarier things than some crazy little girl. Ayako paused for a second more before turning and heading down the stairs. Away from the fourth floor and the room.

"Nee-san," Madoka tugged on her shirt. "She's going to come after you now."

"She's Twelve," Tatsuki snorted still watching the door. Madoka's hands were trembling where they clutched her shirt and when Tatsuki turned to look she felt more than just anger. The teen knelt down on the floor and wiped the gathering tears away from Madoka's gentle eyes. "She's almost twice your age little dove. What she's doing isn't right and if none of the nurses are willing to stop her then I will."

Madoka didn't seem to believe her but when Tatsuki guided her over to the large bed she followed. She sat quietly, shaking like a leaf while Tatsuki went about her room, cleaning up and collecting the yoga mats she'd lain out on her floor. It wasn't a real training mat, but it was close enough for solitary kata and training. When Tatsuki went behind the screen to change she very quietly asked Ink to keep an eye on things for her. She was a sweet ghost, and since she'd appeared at the last full moon, Sakuya and Tatsuki had managed to help three other ghosts move on with Ink's help. Never her own case though. Ink was always just lingering in the background, disappearing whenever something got too close to home or acting out when the wrong triggers were touched upon.

Tatsuki tilted backwards to look and see if everything was still alright; sometimes thinking too much could make Ink go sideways. Everything was fine. The ghost had flickered out of the room but Madoka was sleeping peacefully on Tatsuki's bed for what may have been her first restful sleep in some time.

"At least someone is resting," Tatsuki spoke softly to herself. Buttoning the last few fasteners of her dress, Tatsuki came out from behind the screen and went to her journal. She'd hadn't forgotten too much after the last time. Nothing important at least. A name or two had slipped or gotten mixed up, and she didn't even remember her english teacher's name when she was in the man's class, but that was all.

Tatsuki flipped open the journal and began to fill in the pages. These were her memories of the day and when she'd finsihed with them Tatsuki exchanged this book for another. A slight push to the underside of her desk drawer and a thicker, messier looking journal fell out and into her hand. Research. So much research and pouring over the books on the supernatural stored here at the hall had given her just enough to figure out how to stir up the stagnant spiritual energy on Rougetsu Island. Just enough so the spirits could move on despite the absence of a shinigami to help them. There were so many of them though.

So many it hurt.

* * *

><p>Tatsuki spun and pushed the angry little girl into the room she'd come jumped out of, slamming the door shut and holding it there while Ayako screamed and shouted and cursed her. The thunk of steel scissors in the thick wooden door echoed dully amid her shrieks and the heavy footfalls of nurses and orderlies was growing louder and faster.<p>

Tatsuki didn't move though. The little brat had tried to cut her open! Her kimono had taken the brunt of Ayako's attack, a long slice fluttering in her sleeve from wrist to shoulder and catching part of the garment underneath as well, but there was a gash in her arm that ached with every breath and stung with the sweat of her efforts in the garden. It stung and her head was swimming far more than it should be. An orderly came up to her, Hideki, and tried to move her bodily from the door, shouting and demanding and explanation until he realized why his hand was wet. Only then did he stop yelling and did the others recognize why Tatsuki had shut the girl in her room. Aki hurried forward, shifting Tatsuki away from the writhing mass of white uniformed staff members and towards the nurses station while Hideki took up Tatsuki's place against Ayako's door. Her kimono was pulled from her form and the ruined sleeve of her dress was cut off so the nurses could see what was wrong.

"Arisawa-san? Look at me, look at me."

Tatsuki realized she needed to sit down only a few seconds before she fainted.

When she awoke some hours later, it was inside of her room. The windows were illuminated with those final moments of dusk, the strange sort of time that wasn't made brighter by turning on the lights or darker by keeping them off. It was almost a depressing time but it was magical as well. This was the time she'd always caught sight of Ichigo going about his patrol. Tatsuki let a faint smile crawl across her lips. She wouldn't see him here.

She shifted slightly, feeling the fog of painkillers at the edge of her brain and the sharp steel in her arm. She'd been hooked up to an IV and the dull ache in the back of her other arm reminded her of what had happened. It must have been pretty bad if they'd stitched her up and sent her 'home' to recover.

Madoka hadn't been joking when she said Ayako was going to start targeting Tatsuki. On the upside, her little dove was safe now. Ayako had changed targets and saw Tatsuki as the only obstacle between herself and her prey. The kid didn't have morals or ethics. No sense of right and wrong. That or she just didn't care.

"Tsuki-nee, you shouldn't do that!"

"It's just homework," Tatsuki laughed. She set her pencil down and showed the younger girl. "See? Math homework." Madoka didn't seem to trust her, instead leaning closer before shaking her head. "Yeah, it's a bit of a pain."

"Then you really shouldn't do it!" Madoka cried. "Not if you're still hurt."

She couldn't help the laugh that bubbled up. Madoka wasn't pleased to be laughed at and explaining the whole thing didn't exactly allay the little girl's ego. She didn't seem very interested in the idea of schoolwork either, having been too young to attend real classes before coming here. However, when Tatsuki gestured for her to sit at the table, she did so. It was painfully normal to teach a little girl how to do her sums. Painfully familiar but missing half of the cast. Madoka wasn't like the Kurosaki twins though. She was much shier than Yuzu, let alone Karin, and when asked about her hobbies she would grin and show you her drawings. If the painter downstairs wasn't so bi-polar Tatsuki might have attempted to have Madoka taken on as a student.

Then again, Tatsuki had never actually met the man. Maybe it was all an exaggeration.

* * *

><p>Tatsuki hadn't seen Ayako for most of the week she'd been recovering. Like the little girl was planning the next attack for another time or actually being punished for her ill behavior. Now <em>That<em> was a daydream of proportions. Instead of wondering when or how Ayako was going to strike again Tatsuki continued down the stairs to the third floor where some of the worse off patients were. Those who weren't so badly off as to need isolation as she and Sakuya were but still needed to be kept from the others.

Ink had told her the location of the artist downstairs. The slick and shy ghost admitted that it was her second favorite spot in the asylum because the artist always had some kind word for her. That alone was proof that Tatsuki needed to see him. Sakuya fought her gift for ghosts even after she and Tatsuki had sent several on. The fighter had run out of information from the books she'd collected through the building and if this man could give her just a glimpse of what was keeping this island so stagnant then it was worth the risk of coming down here. The risk of leaving her tower and descending towards the bitter little crow.

Tatsuki knocked lightly on the artist's door.

Shuffling and the sound of parchment and canvas came from within. She didn't knock again. He knew someone was waiting for him and she could be just as patient.

Finally the door opened and an old man, withered and weathered from his time on earth was staring at her. His yukata was hapharzardly tied and his hakama were stained with paint and ink. A long face had become drawn up, puckered while snowy hair fell around his face in long wispy strands. He didn't seem violent though. Not really.

"She told me you'd come."

"I'd appreciate it if you would listen to my request." Tatsuki bowed to him before standing upright and pulling her rober just a bit tighter around her form. "Although, I'd appreciate it much more if you could tell me anything about this place."

The artist backed up and let her into his room. The scent of linseed oil and ink and turpentine permeated everything about the place. Beyond that was the scent of tobacco and ash in combination with sweat and laundered sheets. Vibrantly morbid paintings hung from every wall and some were painted onto the floor. Piles of canvas and parchment looked ready to fall from every shelf and tabletop. When she turned to face him it was to see he was straightening his own appearance. Subtly, but enough so he looked more like an old teacher and less like an old drunkard.

"Aren't they the same thing?" Magaki asked as he puttered past her to his latest piece.

"There's a young girl here who might have some talent, I don't know. I think it might help her to learn how to paint from a master though." Tatsuki was careful not to let her kimono drag over any of the pieces painted on the floor. It already had a giant gash in the arm and the bloodstains were mostly unnoticable now so she really didn't need paint on it. Or to piss off the guy she needed on her side for this. "My request is that you might look at her work, or perhaps even let her sit and watch quietly as you work."

"You think I should take on an apprentice." The old man took a seat on the floor in front of an easel. The painting hadn't started yet; she could see he was still testing colors out.

"I just want Madoka to have something normal. She can't join me when I'm investigating this place or trying to send spirits." Tatsuki looked at the painter directly, trying to ignore his surprise when she admitted to seeing things. "Madoka can't even see them, much less interact with them. She can hardly defend herself against Ayako."

"And that is where the second part comes in," Magaki hummed as he considered her. "The whole place is buzzing from your after hours activities. Ink seems to think you're going to save everyone." His eyes shifted in color ever so slightly and Tatsuki felt something like a breeze travel along her spine. "I don't know if I agree with her yet."

"I have to do something."

The elder painter let out a breath and half of a grumbling sigh as he looked over at a half finished painting on the ground. A woman in red stood out against a terrifying scene, but her face was blurred and it seemed Magaki had stopped midway through. As though whatever he'd been painting was no longer an accurate depiction of the vision in his head. The artist scowled at the image and reached for a brush, dipping it in black ink before leaning closer to the painting...and hesitating. The brush was set back down and he leaned back. For long moments he sat there, watching, waiting, until his brushstroke was so rapid that Tatsuki wasn't sure he'd even moved. The miserable scene behind her was slowly shifting. Changing from fire and suffering to flowers in the evening air. More figures were being painted beside her, more defined but obviously happy and calm. One such figure was almost equal in size to the first woman in red, dressed in the same crimson robes though active and dancing.

"Madoka must sit quietly in that spot. She needn't bring anything." The artist rinsed his brushes and continued to stare at the painting he'd changed. "I can only hope you alter the pending fate of this island as I have altered the painting."

"I will."

Even if she didn't know how or what was going to happen. She was going to try because someone, multiple someones if she counted the many ghosts and unaware patients, were depending on her to keep them safe. She hadn't failed in that yet. Tatsuki very quietly rose and bowed to the master before exiting the room. There were many things to do right now, not the least of which was going to see her doctor. Since her lapse in memory he'd wanted to increase her visits from once every two weeks to four o'clock Friday. Every Friday until she had another episode. She would have one too. It was inevitable.

Tatsuki shook her head and continued down the stairs towards Katagiri's office. Madoka would hear about the news later.

She paused halfway down the stairs when music began to play across the sound system. The first time they'd done it Tatsuki hadn't known what to think. It was almost soothing but it was off as well. Like sipping at a warm drink in winter only to realize there was a draft or maybe the cup was too hot or bits of coffee grounds had found their way into the cup. Something about the sound was just grating on her nerves the same way that shinigami or hollows grated against her soul...sometimes it would be okay but there was always something a little bit off.

"That's very interesting," Katagiri commented as she told him what she'd noticed. That nurse had been right; there was a certain freedom afforded to those who were mad.

"Although...it was less noticeable whenever Shinji was in class, or even when Yammy tried to devour my soul. Like they were almost at the right frequency." Tatsuki was laying back on one of the couches in his office. The ceiling had cracks running through some of the tiles. Cracks that almost made an image but never quite made a picture. There was the idea of what could be. "The song is the same way. It's almost a fit."

"Did you ever study music Arisawa-san?" Katagiri asked her from behind his desk. He always kept the desk between himself and his patients. Maybe it was a way to cope, a way to keep from becoming attached to something that faded like flowers in the fall.

"Not really, not actively at least. We had the classes in school, and sometimes Sado would..." Tatsuki paused. "Chad. Not Sado, he liked to be called Chad. He used to let me play his guitar sometimes, just messing around after school or after he'd finished a set."

"That must have been fun."

"It was. Every time he tried to teach me a song it changed though. I've always known this song, so maybe my emotions are being nitpicky?" She turned to face him, leaning on the arm of the couch to peer at him over the back. She kept a barrier between them too.

"I can see why. Your grandmother was a Tsukimori shrine maiden, wasn't she? And your mother in training before she moved to the mainland." Katagiri gave her a slight smile. "It's possible you do know the song. How would you feel about music therapy?"

"I already sit around and listen to music all day," Tatsuki answered. She was leaning against the back of the couch now, watching the way the sun played off of the leaves outside his window. It gave the whole room a little bit a green glow. "Wake up with music, breakfast, garden or kata and music, shower, lunch, music and homework and reading until bed."

She had a habit of skipping dinner recently.

"And ghost hunting," he smiled a bit. "I want to try something once I get the okay from Director Haibara if that's alright. Once he accepts, we'll go over it in greater detail and you can tell me what you think then."

"Alright. Anything else for the day doc?"

"Turn in your homework."

She did just that, happy she had someone to grade her work even if they couldn't fully explain it. The papers were left on his desk and she was allowed to leave. Off to the garden or to do kata. Garden today. A change of scenery would be good and if she pushed herself anymore she'd end up pulling something. Twice she'd injured herself after forgetting something and if she'd just stumbled over Chad's name it meant she was going to strains something. Punishing herself according to the nurses and doctors.

Tatsuki was halfway out the door when she heard the pitter patter of feet across the tile floors. The faint gasps of the staff and the small growl that grew in volume the closer it got. Ayako. She was faster this time but Tatsuki heard her coming. Ayako hadn't been waiting for her either, she was lunging, coming at her from behind wihout even trying sneak up. Tatsuki wasn't as distracted either. When she felt the little girl's energy come within arms reach it was a matter of two steps to spin the child around. Disarming her opponant was one of the first things Tatsuki had ever learned from her sensei. Scissors. Again with the scissors. Again with the beastly growls and curses that were squawked and again with little feet trying to kick their way free. Tatsuki's hand moved down to grab the ribbon tied around Ayako's waist, looping either end of the bow around Ayako's wrists and then pulling the tails just a bit tighter.

"Every day for the last week Ayako," Tatsuki scowled at her. "I'm getting sick of it. If you were any bigger I'd actually consider smacking you around."

Tatsuki released the little girl to one of the orderlies. She had flowers to tend dammit. However, as Ayako was carried away and the nurses were checking Tatsuki over, she felt less inclined to garden. She did notice the creeping figure of another girl in black. Sendou was coming over to her with a strange look on her face and an even stranger sensation about her soul. Kageri Sendou, the only other teenager in this place and the girl she was supposed to be studying with hadn't so much as spoken to Tatsuki for the two months she'd been in Rougetsu Hall. Even so, her energy felt different now than it did the last time Tatsuki had passed her in the hall. The melody of her soul was less fractured and more...

She wasn't pushing her doll around!

The my-size copy of Kageri was by far the creepiest thing Tatsuki had ever seen in this hall but from the look on the other teens face, it wasn't a good time to bring that up. Tatsuki continued to stand and wait, and then watch as the teenager looked her up and down. Assessing and deciding and finally speaking.

"Arisawa...that's not your real name." Her voice was mellower than Tatsuki would have expected. Almost smokey, almost as though she'd only just finished sobbing. "You don't really like it."

"Not really," Tatsuki agreed. For the barest second she wondered if having a false name made getsuuyuu syndrome worse. Hardly a flicker in her mind; it didn't matter anymore.

"What is it?" Sendou leaned closer. "Tell me, before she comes back."

The doll. She was scared of the thing as much as Tatsuki was.

"Kurosawa." Tatsuki glanced over to the garden. "Do you want to come outside with me? It might be nice to talk some more."

"No. She'll notice. It's always worse if I'm gone too long."

Kageri glanced around before passing something to Tatsuki and hurrying away. Tatsuki looked down to see what had been handed over and nearly dropped it in surprise. It was one of those strange skull things Ichigo carried around; she'd only seen it a few times but she knew. There was no way she couldn't know what it was when it set her teeth on edge and her soul wanted to run away the moment it touched her skin. Sendou knew something about that world, or perhaps she didn't and merely thought Tatsuki would be able to decipher something from a worn shinigami badge.

Maybe this ancient badge had something to do with why none of the spirits could move on around her.

The thought of it plagued her for the rest of the day, into the evening as she sat in her room trying to study the folk lore of the island. Magaki-sensei had sent an old and bordering decrepit book up to her room for her to study. Tatsuki didn't doubt that the book had something in it about the badge but she couldn't focus. Not when her arm was still killing her and the badge was grinning wickedly at her. Tatsuki slipped her robe off and her shirt soon after; her arm was practically screaming and she needed to know if she'd torn her stitches earlier.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Tatsuki made a grunting sound at Sakuya's question. "I'm getting really sick of Ayako's shit. Does this look infected?"

Sakuya came closer through the room and held Tatsuki's arm still so she could look at it.

"It looks a bit red, perhaps you could go down in the morning to make sure it's all right." Sakuya didn't quite move away though. Instead she picked up Tatsuki's shirt and kimono, holding each as the fighter dressed. "Ayako didn't have the best life before coming here."

"That's hardly an excuse to act like a little monster." Tatsuki finished buttoning the front of her shirt and began to hang her kimono up. She was done for the night.

"No? But that's what she is. A little monster." Sakuya drifted towards the desk chair and began to peer at the collection of notes and the strange skull staring out at her. "She's my monster. I thought by bringing her into this world I might give her a chance, by surrendering her to another family she might not suffer as I had...but her father's cruelty continues."

"Sakuya..." Tatsuki turned to face the older woman. She was barely older than Tatsuki herself was. Six years at the most and if Ayako was her daughter she couldn't have been more than fourteen when it happened.

"I had little choice in Ayako's conception, and none at all in her father." Sakuya lifted her eyes to look at Tatsuki. "She won't bother you or Madoka as long as you're up here. She's afraid of me. I don't know why. She doesn't know that I'm her mother but it's enough that she stays away."

Tatsuki came to kneel in front of the woman and wondered if a part of her was done crying. Her eyes were pale and her voice steady. The light was soft as dusk settled in. Soon she and Sakuya would go and look for spirits and Ink would bring them news and clues. Soon the moment would pass and they would never speak of this again.

"Are you happy about that?" Tatsuki asked.

"I wasn't before. I was ecstatic and crushed, because the man who...I loved him. In a way that was only ours but it wasn't enough for him. He wanted something that couldn't be so he took it. He took the only thing I couldn't give and in return I was given that which I never wanted." Sakuya took a deep breath and their conversation was coming to an end. Now was when she would turn the tables and Tatsuki would have to share a part of her history in return. "Have you ever been in love?"

"I think so. But he doesn't know I've even left. I don't even know if he'd come to visit." She might be contagious to shinigami and the spiritually aware. "I met him by accident at the dojo. He was so stubborn about everything."

It wasn't his big grin or the fact that he cried that Tatsuki had been drawn to. It wasn't even what she remembered the most about him. It was how pigheaded and stubborn he could be. The way he never gave up, even when he'd been defeated and crushed, when there was nothing left and no other option. His only option had always been and would always be fighting on. Never giving up. Here she sat doing exactly that. She'd given up on him and no amount of fighting would change that he was always going to be out of her reach. She was staring at his back and soon she wouldn't even be able to see that.

"What was his name?" Sakuya asked her quietly.

"Ichigo."

It was at that time Tatsuki looked up from the wooden floor she'd been staring at as she regaled Sakuya with the tale of her almost lover. She could remember the first time he'd ever done something vaguely romantic; her eight year old mind couldn't have been more thrilled even while Ichigo seemed to notice nothing outside of his shoes. The first white day where he'd bought something specifically for her because he'd realized she was shopping for him on valentines. That was when they really started to hang out. That was when their families really started attending festivals together and sleepovers were more than out of convenience. He started to take her to the flower stall every festival and buy her the exact same one. Every time. Then they got older. He had is friends, she had hers, and there were other girls now. Ichigo was magnetic and she wasn't the only young woman who'd fallen for him.

"I'm sure he'll try to find you," Sakuya set her hand on Tatsuki's. "If you really mean that much to him, he'll have to. Especially if you didn't say good-bye to him first."

"We'll see," Tatsuki shook her head with a faint smile. "For now I want to see if we can't figure out some way to start cleaning up the island a bit more."

Their code for ghost hunting. So far they were limited to what they could get to. The hall was nearly overflowing with the spirits of patients who'd moved on, one of whom had passed only a few months before Tatsuki arrived.

"I slipped this out of my father's office earlier," Sakuya admitted as she pulled a book from under her haori. It was an older book with newer pages inserted towards the back. "It's death records of the patients with getsuuyuu, but there's some strange deaths in there as well. Deaths that couldn't have happened by mortal means to people who were perfectly healthy."

"A lot of these are pretty recent," Tatsuki flipped through the back pages. "Are you sure your dad won't notice it's missing?"

"Positive. So long as we put it back before he returns from his trip. He's gone to the mainland to speak with my brother about something." Sakuya's voice did something odd when she said brother. "He should be gone for the next seven days."

"Seven days to try and link deaths," Tatsuki nodded. "I don't suppose you've seen Ink recently?" Sakuya hadn't. "Neither has Magaki-sensei. Not for the last week."

Between Ink's disappearance and the badge Sendou had given her this morning things were looking awfully sinister.

* * *

><p>Tatsuki had wondered for a while why every table in the dining hall had it's very own nurse and why orderlies were stationed at every door. She supposed it was in case someone needed help but why so many of them? Why were there over a dozen medical professionals standing around and waiting with sedatives in their apron pockets? Every nurse in the building must have been there. It was as breakfast was being portioned out that Tatsuki realized why. For the most part she'd been ignorant of how bad an episode could be. She'd always seen the aftermath, heard about what had happened, but that wasn't seeing someone fall.<p>

The shinigami badge in her pocket grew warm only a few seconds before the table next to them began to have a fit. One of the younger men in the hall had been tapping his finger insessantly. Harder, until it thumped and one of the nurses tried to stop him. It wasn't working. He continued to strike against the table until Tatsuki could see crimson dotting his fingertip and staining the bright white tablecloth. It still wasn't enough. The young man began to shout, snarling and hurling insults at the unseen affront the table had done him until he tried to punch the wood. His dining partners had risen and fled the place, gone away to other tables and taking their plates; he was trying to punch it not long after. That was when the orderlies pushed through and began to pull him bodily from the thing. Out came the needles and on came the song to try and calm the fervent man.

Tatsuki hugged herself as she watched him continue to fight. The music wasn't helping; it was making her nervous. A soft and cool hand came to rest on her shoulder and Tatsuki jumped. Tsubaki was looking at her, wondering.

"Tatsuki-chan?"

"I'm nervous." She looked away from the scene. The shouts were slurring and growing dimmer though still as angry. "This music, his screams, it's making me nervous."

"Mori-san has that effect sometimes." Tsubaki stood from the table and waited for her to stand. Tatsuki realized the hall had emptied almost entirely when the fit began. When had everyone gone? Why? "No one is quite sure why. Let's get to our room though, hm? We can finish eating there."

"Alone?" Tatsuki asked. Her heart was pounding in her chest at the thought. Why would she have to sit alone because someone else had started the fight? It wasn't fair that she was always being left alone! Maybe she wanted to be the one people ran for, or at least someone people wanted to rescue. "I don't...please don't leave."

"No, no, I'll be there." Tsubaki had to help her stand. Why couldn't she move? If she didn't move she would be standing in the vast space by herself. "I'm not leaving Tatsuki-chan by herself."

"You swear?"

"Not until you tell me to leave."

Later Tatsuki would apologize for crushing the woman's hand in her own and she would feel slightly better knowing she was one of seven others to have been triggered by Mori's attack. That was later though. Now she was terrified. They paused for a half second so breakfast could be brought up to the fourth floor and once more the fighter felt panic as the staff walked away from them. Soft words, consoling sounds as they made their way up the stairs to the fourth floor without seeing others. Once in a while she'd see a patient or a nurse turn a corner or go into a room and her chest would tighten. Her breath would grow short as they kept walking away. Tsubaki spoke low into her walkie and helped her stand upright on the third floor. Words Tatsuki couldn't comprehend as she fought to breathe. She was pulled to her feet once more and this time they were joined by an orderly. He was the one who pulled her up to stand. Except she wasn't standing. He was and she was trying to pull air into her lungs. Tsubaki's hand disappeared and Tatsuki nearly cried until it came back into contact with hers. She hadn't said she could leave yet damnit!

Nurse Tsubaki Tono was there when Tatsuki awoke two days later.

She didn't remember the days before with great clarity. She remembered breakfast and she remembered being afraid, but nothing else. She'd lost two days to fear and drugs. She must have written in her journal though, because there was a pen in her hands and the pages were filled with writing. Her arm was hurting again and she couldn't seem to make herself focus on anything for very long.

"It's alright Tsuki-chan. It wasn't anything worth remembering." Tsubaki pulled a table over. It had breakfast waiting. "Let's see if we can't get something down today."

"I feel like I puked," Tatsuki admitted. "Did I? Tsubaki?"

"Well, you were a little bit emotional Wednesday. We're very glad you didn't hit anyone, but you made yourself sick. Too many tears and mucus made it's way onto your stomach. Yesterday nothing would stay down for very long."

"I cried enough to make myself puke?" Tatsuki asked in disbelief. "Oh god. I can't do anything by half, can I?" Tatsuki reached a shaky hand for her water and realized she was hooked up to an IV. "Do I need this much longer?"

"Only until you're back on your feet," the nurses smiled softly. "You're metabolism is very high and you haven't been eating as much as you should before this."

Tsubaki stayed with her through breakfast, shifting lightly and looking over her paperwork. When she was satisfied Tatsuki had eaten enough for now she pushed the table away. If ever she'd felt like an invalid it was now. When she was weak from two days without eating. When the last time she'd been on her own feet was to train until she could barely stand. When her last real tussle with another human being had resulted in blood loss.

"Tsuki-chan, is it alright if Sonosaki sits in while I use the restroom?" Tsubaki asked.

"I, yeah, why wouldn't it be?" Tatsuki was trying to lift her journal up to read. What the hell had gone through her head two days before... "I don't need a babysitter."

"Alright, she's just outside if you need something."

Dr. Katagiri looked at the chart Tsubaki handed over. His newest patient was an enigma. She'd outlasted everyone in her age group in terms of symptoms but her reactions were twice as severe. For two days she'd sobbed when her nurse looked like she might walk away. When he'd leave the room or when the fourth floor orderly tried to leave. Her triggers were troubling but they also revealed a great deal about when and how she'd come down with Getsuuyuu Syndrome. It gave away the trigger that had brought it out of remission as well.

"Her father hasn't been found yet?" he asked Nurse Tono. From all accounts the man had been Tatsuki's entire world. A good father, a kind husband, a member of the community. Then one day he'd vanished and the curse of Rougetsu Island had taken hold. It skipped the mother and the child had suffered. Children were always the ones who suffered.

"No. There's hardly any record he existed except for the missing persons report." Tsubaki shifted her weight and glanced back at Tatsuki's door. "Thirteen years she's had this. It's hard to think of a child so young having such a dreadful disease."

"Mm," Katagiri agreed. "Let's let her rest a bit more. She's still under surveillance?"

"The cameras have been turned on. If she gets out of bed I'll make sure someone goes in and turns them off until she's done."

"Good. Good, let's try to keep our disappearances to a minimum until the moon comes back up." Katagiri put the folder under his arm. "Let's see if we can't get a hold of some of her friends too. It might help her to see some familiar faces."

"And when they have to leave?"

* * *

><p>Tatsuki winced when the tape was pulled from her arm. Three days later and she was now IV free. She was still being watched until she'd gotten her strength back, and no kata until she was at full strength, but at least now she could eat and keep it down. At least now she could form full sentences instead of the odd fragments she'd scribbled down in her journal. Just reading them made her feel uneasy. Tatsuki shook her head of the thoughts and turned to see Madoka's newest drawing. Magaki-sensei had taken his duty very seriously in the week Tatsuki had been on the mend. The little girl was sitting quietly and drawing something but the picture she'd made was colorful, bright, all the little doves were standing together and holding hands. Tatsuki in her bright blue kimono and Sakuya in her red one were standing in the back. She was workign on something else now.<p>

"Sakuya-nee and Misaki have been keepign me company while you got better," Madoka told her before climbing on the bed beside her. Tsubaki was winding up the cord from the IV and preparing to wheel it out of the room. "They are not as fun to color with."

"I'm sorry," Tatsuki laughed. "You should meet Yuzu, she's always been a very good friend to color with."

"I'd like that," Madoka nodded. She lay on the bed and continued to color. "Magaki-sensei wants me to try and draw you. Movement, Shape, Proportion!"

"Should I sit still then?" Tatsuki asked.

"No, that's part of Movement."

They sat like that for some time. Ink began to form before slipping away and Tatsuki wondered if she shouldn't try to hunt the ghost girl down. She might have if the nurse hadn't returned. Smiling bright and asking how Tatsuki felt about having a visitor or two.

"Well, I guess," Tatsuki didn't get to finish. Asano Keigo bounded into the room cheering with noisemakers and streamers behind him. Kojima Mizuiro was following quietly behind him, catching the scraps of paper and apologizing to the nurse as he carried a box in with him. "What the hell are you doing?"

"We came to see Tsuki-chan of course!" Keigo grinned brightly. "Ah! I didn't know you had a sidekick, what am I going to do now?"

Keigo knelt to speak with Madoka, lamenting his position as sidekick being filled as he helped the shy child smile and laugh. Mizuiro smiled with them, though he brought the box to rest on the chair by the bed and kept standing. The quiet room had filled with activity and life. More colorful and making Tatsuki smile bigger than she had in a long time.

"Good afternoon Tatsuki," Mizuiro nodded to her. "I hope we're not making too much of a fuss."

"Nah, all I have to do is shout and the nurse will come and get rid of you." Tatsuki turned to see Keigo sobbing as Madoka refused his hand in marriage; She insisted her was too much of a clown to be a husband. "How are you?"

"Good, very good, my girlfriend..."

"Kimi," Tatsuki filled in. Mizuiro nodded and Tatsuki smiled to know she remembered it. "As shocking as it is I remember the two of you very well."

"That's great," he smiled.

Tatsuki didn't know how long they sat their laughing as though nothing had changed. Tea had come and gone and the boys had pulled an endless string of snacks and treats from the big box they brought with them. Little toys, little charms, and even her old DS and some games were revealed to her. Lunch showed up at some point, big enough to feed the four of them, and still they stayed. Nothing was forgotten. Nothing important that one or both of the boys didn't entirely remmeber either. Madoka had left though. Which was fine. Completely fine because she was just downstairs taking lessons with Magaki-sensei. She hadn't Really left.

"You guys can talk about Ichigo you know," Tatsuki finally sighed. They'd been avoiding it. "At the very least tell me if anything has attcaked."

"Not so many attacks," Mizuiro shook his head. "And we haven't really heard from Ichigo since he left."

"You're lying."

"Well, sort of."

"The shinigami came to give us Soul Tickets," Keigo admitted. Her reached into the box one more time and pulled a glaring red slip of paper out. "This one is yours, but when it's red you can't use it."

"I must be infectious," Tatsuki gave a sad laugh.

"We're not going." Mizuiro leaned back in his seat. "No point really. What would we do? Sit there, watching them sit there and no one talking about anything until an attack came? Then we'd just be sitting around doing nothing again. It's pointless to go to Seireitei."

"Especially if they're so sure everyone is just going to come back," Keigo agreed. "Why waste the time and energy to do this otherwise? We'll get there eventually, why rush it?"

"Not me." Tatsuki hadn't meant to say that but it was out now. The boys were staring at her in confusion. "Rougetsu, if you die here that's it. You're stuck here. At least I won't be the only one though. There's others here, some family even."

"I'd been wondering why there were so many people and so few houses," Mizuiro admitted. "They dont' seem unhappy."

"Not happy either," Keigo scowled. "Tatsuki, it's not a good thing to be stuck here, you know what happens."

"Not here it doesn't," Tatsuki argued. "Something happens here. The chain of fate disappears but it was never really there either."

"I think we should see if there's anything outside that can help," Keigo finally spoke up. "Urahara might know something that can help, hell, I might just use the ticket to see if those shinigami bastards know anything that could help."

"I doubt it," Tatsuki snorted. Then she remembered. "Wait! I might need you to look into something for me." Tatsuki leaned and looked around. "Grab that, yeah, get the badge out of the pocket?" Mizuiro pulled it loose and his brows raised. "One of the girls here gave it to me. Do you think you can find out who it might have belonged to?"

The boys borrowed one of Madoka's abandoned crayons and a sheet of paper, rubbing a copy of the badge down before rolling it up and putting it in their bag. They'd try to get back to her about it before the end of the week.

"We'll see about getting some hair ties too," Mizuiro teased, ruffling her hair. "Maybe we can put it in pigtails, convince you that we have permission to do it."

"Fat chance," she laughed. "Hair ties would be nice though. It's getting long...they're not letting me cut my hair though. Apparently it helps."

The boys hadn't been prepared to see Tatsuki fall apart. As they headed for the door a nurse had come in, assuring her they'd be back, but it hadn't been enough for Tatsuki. They'd watched as the strongest woman they knew was held down and drugged into slumber. Two orderlies and a nurse were needed to hold her down. The little girl from before was shooed away before she even reached the door and Mizuiro apologized to her while Keigo watched the door to their friend's room. Her second episode with abandonment the staff told them. Her triggers were getting stronger as the weeks went on.

_~!~Karakura Town, 3 days after Ichigo's return; 3 Months after Tatsuki was checked in~!~_

Ichigo didn't know where else to go. Who else but Urahara would know about spiritual illnesses? His father had been a fighter, he was a healer of the physical and when Ichigo had brought it up Isshin had taken him into the kitchen and poured him a glass of scotch. Isshin had told him that the victims of the sickness weren't able to be collected by shinigami; they wouldn't become hollows, but they couldn't move on either. They lingered in the world without chains and focused on a single emotion, sometimes they became aggressive and killed anything that crossed them, other times they merely haunted a place until their sorrow infected anyone who came near. Isshin had changed the subject when the twins came in and he'd left Ichigo alone at the kitchen table to think it over. The way his father had spoken made it seem like this was the end for Tatsuki.

Urahara had to know something. Maybe Ichigo couldn't fight a disease but this didn't sound like a normal illness that could be cured with medicine! He had to know if anything could be done for the girl who still managed to kick his ass. Anything at all.

He didn't expect the reaction he received. Tessai had fallen to the ground, face losing all emotion while Urahara dropped his teacup into his lap. The blood drained from his face as his mind stood stock still. Ichigo paid no mind to the others behind him and ignored the fact that He'd been the one who'd finally asked what it was.

"What is it?" Ichigo pressed. "What is Getsuuyuu Syndrome?"

"Have you ever heard of something called Broken Heart Syndrome?" Urahara asked instead. He accepted the rag he was handed and began to soak up some of the tea on his lap.

Of course he knew. Ichigo had suffered from it as a child. His father was a doctor and he lived right above the clinic.

"It's a heart condition brought on by stressful situations," Uryuu answered for those shaking their heads. "Most times it's caused by the death of a loved one, but the stress of the situation creates a chemical imbalance and weakens the heart itself. More often than not, the heart recovers."

"Very good," Urahara nodded. "Now, to go further into things. On certain occasions, and in certain bloodlines, it can directly affect the soul. In particular, it alters a certain...sound, a melody for lack of a better word, the soul makes. Most times it just attracts hollows for a little bit."

"This isn't most times." Ichigo looked up from his hands. His gaze had fallen upon them when Ishida began to speak. A high stress situation. How many of them had she been put into just by living near him? By going into fight after fight, tournament after championship. She was always stressed about something. But that wasn't enough. No, the death of a loved one. The destruction of a friendship. Both had happened to her. He knew and still he'd done it.

"No. It's not. There are times when it happens just before death, and the soul carries on to become a hollow. If a shinigami were to suffer from this condition and then fell in battle, the syndrome would follow into their reincarnation." Urahara set the sopping wet towel aside and accepted a new one. He laid it out and Tessai sat down beside him rather than try to keep cleaning. "Then there's the bloodlines affected by it. Getsuuyuu Syndrome...It's particular to a certain part of the human world you know."

"Rougetsu Island." Why else would the whole family move there? Why else would Tatsuki be living in a hospital there instead of in Karakura. "She moved back after we left. Her mom and her stepdad didn't stay though." Only the gods knew where her father was. Ichigo was oddly aware of Orihime staring at him with questions in her eyes. Oh. Right. Tatsuki had never told anyone Akira wasn't her real father.

"Rougetsu Island is one of four places in Japan where the path to the spirit world runs exceptionally close. So close in fact, that it can be openly accessed with the right ceremony." Urahara poured himself another cup of tea. "Three of them use a sacrifice to open the gate. A human life is exchanged in order to open the gate without releasing miasma from Yomi, the otherworld. Of Course, Rougetsu thought the whole thing was barbaric and decided to carry out a different ceremony. One where the sacrifice was figurative and the creature guarding the Yomi was offered a gift instead of a payment."

"Why would they want open the gate though?" Orihime asked. "What purpose is there in killing someone?"

"The sacrifice distracts the creatures roaming the path so the villagers can send the dead to the afterlife. People born to these villages aren't like normal humans. The amount of psychics is higher, there's more shamans, maybe they've been altered by their proximity to the otherworld, maybe they're not entirely human. There aren't any hollows there, but the ghosts that roam are almost worse." Urahara removed his hat and let out a sigh. "Most of those places have been destroyed by now. The sacrifice lived, the ritual was performed wrong, either way, what was inside the gate spilled out and massacred the villagers. There's nothing but hungry ghosts there now. But Rougetsu Island is the one place still populated."

"A shinigami could easily send them." Ishida was scowling though not as deeply as Ichigo who sat listening. "Why wouldn't they?"

"For some reason we've been banned from there. Seals, gates, wards, the villages locked us out nearly a millennia ago. We haven't been able to get in without a gigai, if we try to vacate the gigai we get stuck, and we can't send the dead without leaving the gigai."

"How do they open the gates?" Chad asked finally. "Is it different in every place?"

"A long time ago on Rougetsu, someone figured out how to make the melody inside each human soul re-tune itself to the way it should be. The restoration of melody would cause the gate to open, the thing waiting on the other side would listen and watch them dance, and the souls of the dead could pass onto the spirit world unharmed." Urahara waved off the new cup of tea before relenting and accepting it. "The living could keep living, and once the ceremony was complete, the creature would return to his place inside of the Paths of the Dead."

"You've seen it happen before?" Orihime questioned. "You can tell us how to carry it out?"

"Right after I was exiled I tried to explore all the places I couldn't have before. One of them had long been destroyed when I came upon it, wards too. Another fell to pieces right as I reached the edge of Minakami Village. Tessai and myself spent almost three weeks at each village trying to send the souls trapped there any way we could. Some had become onryo, others merely waifs. There was even a kusabi. There was one we never found and another we couldn't manage to purify."

"And you've been to Rougetsu? Right? Tatsuki is going to be okay?"

"No." Urahara shook his head. "I've been there, yes, but there's something wrong. The ceremony they have now...it's a tourist attraction. I've never seen so many trapped souls in one place. " The blonde let out a sad laugh. "They broke the mask they were using to perform the ceremony, and they lost half of the song. The worst part is that the beast is so close to the human world that the very presence of a shinigami starts to wear away at the gate." He shook his head again. "I'm sorry Ichigo. I truly am. It might be best if you said good-bye to her before she enters the third stage."

"What's the third stage?" Ichigo asked as rose.

"That's when Tsuki-chan starts being dangerous. When she starts to infect the people around her." He looked through the open window. "That's when most patients decide to find their own peace."

* * *

><p><em>Why do I only see your back?<em>

_..._

_I know his back, his shoulders, his dark hair better than I know his face. _

_Why does he always leave? Dark hair, orange hair, I feel your face blurring with His and I can't tell you apart any more._

_..._

_Did I do something wrong Daddy? Why did you leave? You said Mommy _

_hid your wings, but I found them for _

_you. Why couldn't I come _

_with you?_

_Why_

_...your back..._

_...wings..._

_I can't see your_

_Face_

* * *

><p>Wow! I am so dreadful to the characters I write for. So very dreadful. If you can't tell, Tatsuki's trigger is abandonment, started by her father's disappearance when she was four years old. Getsuuyuu Syndrome cracks the soul via emotional trauma and, in this version, this can lead to several outcomes. 1) you're going to die soon and become a hollow 2) You're going to die soon and your reincarnation will suffer for it or 3) you won the genetic lottery. What kind of creature is in the family history? What kind of being is drawn to places filled with so much suffering? Ghosts, Yurei, Youkai maybe? Tatsuki will be a little better in the next chapter and Ink will get some screen time.<p> 


End file.
